Does storytelling make a difference for inclusion and learning in an intergenerational Public Participation in Scientific Research project?

As the field of Public Participation in Scientific Research (PPSR) has rapidly grown over the past decade, so too has the awareness of issues of diversity and inclusion in the design of programs aimed at inviting all people to the table of science. We share the early outcomes from the Winterberry- Arctic Harvest Project, where 28 communities across Alaska are investigating how our changing seasons are affecting our berries. We have developed a storytelling-based learning cycle for our PPSR project that includes personal and intergenerational sharing of stories about berries, storytelling with the berry data, and storytelling with climate projections to imagine possible futures of berries. We are evaluating the impact of this storytelling-based model compared to more standard models of public participation in science, and will share our early results, as well as how this model could be applied to other programs.