Scientific Storytelling for Middle-Grade Audiences: "The Story of a Girl"*

A well-told story has the power to enliven a topic and inspire an audience to action, possibly transforming lives. The Stories of Women in Fluids Initiative aims to use the power of storytelling to recruit and retain femme-identifying individuals, particularly those of color, to create a more demographically representative STEM community. This presentation focuses on one of our anthologies, "The Story of a Girl", targeted towards readers ages 8 to 12 using our newly developed writing genre- scientific storytelling - to write about science in a way that not only conveys the science but invites the reader to envision themselves working in the field. The volunteer authors in this anthology interweave fluid dynamics knowledge developed through their research with the story of how they became interested in the field and where it has taken them, personally and professionally. Our anthology showcases the breadth of fluid dynamics applications, with the goal of leading by example and encouraging the interest of female-identifying students in fluid dynamics and, more broadly, STEM. This talk will provide insight to the process of writing to engage students in the middle grades as well as a preview of our publication timeline and longer term plans post publication.