Science Choreography: A Movement-Based Approach to Biology Teaching

We would like to bring to the attention of readers a novel participatory movement–based technique we have been using to teach science and to encourage students to think creatively about science: science choreography. The project evolved as part of a Howard Hughes Medical Institute–funded multiyear collaboration between a team of scientist-educators at Wesleyan University and other institutions and dancerchoreographers from the Liz Lerman Dance Exchange. When the sequencing of the human genome was announced to the public, choreographer and MacArthur Fellow Liz Lerman was one of many who asked what this might mean for our future and the future of our children. To help answer these questions, she decided to make a multimedia piece, Ferocious Beauty: Genome, in collaboration with scientists at Wesleyan University and across the country (Science Choreography, 2011). After the work premiered, it became evident to us that we could use video performance clips from Ferocious Beauty: Genome as a “second textbook”—a launching point and source of enrichment for learning and thinking about concepts in biology. We also came to realize that a number of the tools used in dance making by the Dance Exchange could be easily adapted for use in the classroom, either alone or in combination with video clips from Ferocious Beauty: Genome. We were motivated by a variety of challenges faced by science teachers at all levels, including the perception by some