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Links to an NPR podcast telling the story of how homosexuality was removed from the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual). The story is told by Alix Spiegel, the granddaughter of one of the psychiatrists involved in the movement, Dr. John Patrick Spiegel. While his point of view is given, mostly by recounting stories passed down in the family, the podcast strives to be more objective than those stories, drawing on multiple sources, not only on family lore. In this historical example, a grassroots movement succeeds in changing accepted scientific "fact".

Kendra - I finally had time to listen to the podscast. Thanks for sharing this here so I could listen to this very personal story.

The Center for Digital Storytelling engages people to share personal stories, bearing witness as related to their lives leading to action and positive change.

Narratives and frames are powerful things. It would seem that any endeavor would benefit from knowing what is a compelling "story" to engage the public. Youth development organizations use this tool quite a lot in their work.

I remember you had been talking about using story boards in one of the other cases. I am wondering if there is a way to use both of those ideas for Case 4.

a nice overview from a personal perspective about the power of story in a changing world.

A great site with short podcast stories but also links to live events around the country.

In this editorial from the October 2010 volume of "Science," Bruce Alberts suggests a system of STEM (science, technology, mathematics, and engineering) merit badges for children ages 5-18 to earn awards in schools. He compares this system both to the system used by the Boy and Girl Scouts, and to the system of AP (Advanced Placement) courses currently used in high schools today. It is suggested that this will help students maintain the curiosity they feel towards science in the early years into their high school careers, by when children have often lost interest.

I've recently come to the term STEAM which ads "art" into the traditional STEM equation. I also found this link while doing this quick research - http://ilandsymposium.wordpress.com/2010/08/28/art-science-activism-and-bicycles/. This combined with Rhoda's post about Digital Storytelling makes me wonder what role creativity (from stories to visualizations) play in this equation.

Not being familiar at all with STEM, I am interested in seeing what connections might be found with further inquiry into how stories and the way they are shared can have an effect on positive change, education and personal connections to issues that often seem too big.

This group presents on 4/24 from 7-9pm as part of the Cambridge Science Festival

Great link and they have podcasts too.

Short stories from people about how climate change has influenced their lives in Africa.

Provides a tool to compare health care between countries.

A good comparison of the transition to motherhood in France and the U.S. Talks more about health insurance, not about prenatal testing.

"The dam collapse [in 1979] is one of the worst environmental disasters in history, and no one has heard about it,"--myself included. One of the policy responses to extreme climatic events is to suppress knowledge. ""This book is an attempt to tell the story of this place-western India in 1979-this monsoon, the government cover-up that unjustly silenced this narrative for too long..." 25,000 people died.

sprout is a social design firm devoted to creating and supporting the community-driven learning, teaching, and investigation of science. We're united by a passion to explore and reveal how to reclaim science as a richly personal and creative craft. Through our programs, stories, and studio space, we're working to make our vision real in Somerville.

Felicia: this is a very interesting project. I really like the idea of "community-driven science". I really appreciate that the project is intended to "build a community of investigators in Somerville." These type of opportunities allow communities to build networks and reflect on their local issues possible posing some alternative options. Really interesting!

Doing good things better is Brian's latest book. He is prolific and in this book he describes the discipline of daily writing that he used to write this book (and previous work) -- and that he leads his students to use. The principles of daily writing are given in brief at http://www.faculty.umb.edu/pjt/DailyWriting.html. Looking at Brian's website of writing, you will find material on activism, especially around developments in science and technology, but not only this.

So a couple of these annotated resources are seeming to point to the need for compelling and clear stories and communication. That would be interesting to follow up. And not just the dissemination of ideas, but the support for dialogue and deliberation.

Just found this too and wonder if there might be further work to look into. http://www.socialedge.org/discussions/marketing-communication/storytelling-and-social-change

University of Houston, College of Education has lead a digital storytelling effort that strives to expose instructors and students to the educational opportunities that the technique provides.

An interesting site I found while searching for topics related to storytelling and effectual change.

An interesting article discussing the intersection of reasons for storytelling.

Occupy the Farm Activists Reclaim Prime Urban Agricultural Land in SF Bay Area. Category: Comments from The Berkeley Daily Planet

This is interesting... UC Berkley of all places. I wonder what their side of the story is and why they don't want to support a sustainable farm program.

Felicia - I saw a video about this story a while back with Vandana Shiva (on BBC?) and was amazed at this desperate reality. And the most common way farmer's committed suicide was to drink pesticides.

Cornell University monetary value study on pollination contributions to US Agriculture.

This is an interview to Peter Cordani the CEO of DYN-O-MAT, who had the project of stopping hurricane Rtita in Florida with the gel that is used in diapers. I kind of look for this after Ben's presentation because I thought it was interesting.