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I have always had a deep appreciation for literature. I remember a sentiment that a former English teacher often repeated in class; “literature teaches empathy.” That phrase has stuck with me during my years of teaching, and I have found that literature can also bring science topics to life in creative and enlightening ways.

For over twenty years, I have worked as a chemistry and physics teacher in urban high schools with large Latino populations. Throughout that time, I have sought activities to help students make connections between science and language arts.

This is important for several reasons. First, a cross-curricular classroom helps students to recognize science as something connected to their world, rather than as an isolated subject. Second, I believe that students, especially those whose first language may not be English, are best served when they have regular opportunities to read and write across the science curriculum. Third, students can make more sense of science-specific terminology when they encounter the same terms within a variety of contexts.

Over the years, I have developed different ways to integrate literature into regular classroom learning for my students.

Literature as introduction to science

At the start of the school year, I introduce (or reinforce) the scientific approach by asking students to use questioning and research to propose the one-word title of a short poem by Sylvia Plath¹ (excerpt in Figure 1).

Rather than using Google or other internet sources, students complete the “Research” section of the laboratory template by studying the poem itself. They underline unfamiliar words as they first read through the poem. They then re-read the poem a second time while circling any key words or phrases that might help them figure out the poem’s title. Finally, students look up all unknown words. For each, they determine the part of speech (e.g., noun, adjective, etc.) and provide a short definition in a data table, as shown in Figure 1.

Once this unfamiliar-word research is completed, students write a hypothesis based on what they’ve written in the data table: “The one-word title to the Sylvia Plath poem is….”

In the analysis section, students determine which of the unfamiliar words are also key words in the poem. Through guided questions, we work together to eventually reveal that Sylvia Plath loved nature and particularly forests. Students are ultimately asked to consider what object in the forest the author addresses in the poem. The conclusion to the lab write-up prompts students to restate or recreate the hypothesis and then to answer a focus question using evidence (from their research data) to support the answer.

Finally, students are invited to reflect on the activity and to write their own poem with a one-word title, challenging other students to determine that one-word title using the same scientific approach. I have found that this activity provides students with a meaningful and tangible example of working through the scientific method, and I encourage them to continue using this type of scientific thought process across their other subject areas.

Another introductory activity includes a nonscientific short story, used in a slightly simpler way. Gary Soto’s “Seventh Grade”² is an endearing short story about a seventh grade Mexican-American boy who dreads having to take a French class, only to pretend he knows the language and make up words to impress a girl he likes.

Chemistry, like French, involves learning a new language. So I use this activity to demonstrate that discomfort with any type of language is natural—and that to master any language requires practice and more practice! After reading paper copies of the story, students are instructed to read it a second time while underlining as many element symbols as they can find. For each underlined symbol, they write the full name of the element that it represents.

It is at the teacher’s discretion to decide how much of the short story should be worked through with underlining. Presenting the activity as a contest can also add to the message about new languages, as students begin to compare answers and see which elements they may have missed. Though finding element symbols in text may seem simplistic for high school students, I’ve found it to be a valuable exercise as students must frequently consult the periodic table while working through the text. It is through the repeated use of the periodic table to hunt down elements and their symbols that students begin unwittingly to learn the periodic table!

Interpreting how poets and writers talk about science

I am a voracious reader. When reading, I keep an eye out, so to speak, for any author’s forays into the sciences, whether intentional or not. I learned that Robert Frost had several notable interactions with the scientists of his time and that he had a profound interest in the sciences³.

One of Frost’s lesser-known poems, called “Version,”⁴ pays tribute to physicist Ernest Rutherford’s atomic experiments. I include this poem in a formative assessment at the end of the unit that includes the history of the atom. Students see the poem with specific words and phrases underlined and are tasked with substituting each underlined (literal) word in the poem with its figurative meaning. The underlined words are listed in Figure 3.

Students’ understanding of the meaning of Ernest Rutherford’s gold foil experiments is measured by their responses in the right-hand column, which lists the poet’s figurative meanings. An added benefit is that students recognize the appreciation that Robert Frost, a poet, had for Ernest Rutherford, a scientist!

As a different form of assessment, students read the short story “As the Night, the Day” by Abioseh Nicol⁵, who was a physician, a diplomat, and a writer. Set in a science lab at a rural African school, this story explores discrimination and bias among students and teachers as it centers on the placing of blame for a broken thermometer the teacher finds in the trash can. Though we will discuss the whole story, the assessment relates only to the science concepts discussed throughout the story (see Figure 4).

After reading, students answer several prompts that require them to use knowledge of different types of chemical reactions, and they compare reactions they’ve experienced in the lab to those experienced by the students in the story. While assessing student knowledge of chemistry through a story may be unconventional, the reading provides new ways for students to draw connections between chemistry concepts and phenomena described outside their regular classroom context.

Analyzing science in TV and cinema

Finally, another medium that I incorporate into my classroom learning is TV and cinema—which is undoubtedly more popular than other artistic media! Students watch “The Midnight Sun” (Season 3, Episode 10 of The Twilight Zone)⁶ and answer a series of questions related to heat and heat capacity, which helps us delve into some of the scenarios presented—or alluded to—in the episode. Figure 5 shows some typical questions that I use with this show.

As with some of the literature-related activities, this task is introduced at the end of the unit where it can provide insight into students’ progress in making connections between the familiar and the scientific. This type of activity, however, is also well-suited for honing students’ critical thinking skills by using their science understanding to evaluate how science is used in popular media.

Some other favorite authors that I incorporate into the science curriculum, especially within chemistry classes, are shown in Figure 6.

Creating a literature-rich science curriculum has been an energizing endeavor for me as a teacher always looking to refine his craft. This curriculum reinforces critical reading and writing skills for the many English learners I teach. Students learn to apply chemistry principles through a language-arts lens, which can increase their retention of concepts through memorable means.

Invariably some students will not buy into the literature connections that I introduce, due either to disinterest in the genre or to the unfamiliar format that literature can present. However, incorporating a variety of genres into the curriculum and intentionally selecting characters that students might relate to can help mitigate student trepidation. Additionally, providing scaffolding with note catchers or other graphic organizers can help to prevent the literature from hindering the science.

So the next time you pick up a summer read or find a little pleasure reading to squeeze in during the school year, I hope you'll stay alert to how the science concepts you already teach show up—discussed, reimagined, reinterpreted—in the world of literature and media. By weaving these ideas from poems, stories, and popular media into your lessons, you can enrich your syllabus and enhance your students’ appreciation for how science connects with other disciplines—and with their own lives.

References

¹Sylvia Plath, "Mushrooms," in The Collected Poems, ed. Ted Hughes (New York: Harper & Row, 1981), 139.

²Gary Soto, "Seventh Grade," in Baseball in April and Other Stories (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1990), 52.

³Karen Glenn, “Robert Frost in the Petri Dish,” Poetry Foundation, November 1, 2006, https://www.poetryfoundation.org/articles/68727/robert-frost-in-the-petri-dish.

⁴Robert Frost, "Version," in In the Clearing (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1962),37.

⁵Abioseh Nicol, "As the Night, the Day," in An African Treasury: Articles, Essays, Stories, Poems by Black Africans, ed. Langston Hughes (New York: Crown, 1960), 134.

⁶Rod Serling, "The Midnight Sun," The Twilight Zone, season 3, episode 10, aired November 17, 1961, on CBS, https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0734660/.