the story of a lecture

This is not really a research issue - but having just completed a lecture, it occurs to me that I'm most satisfied with what I present when there is some sort of narrative structure to a lecture. Today's story discussed the development of models for adsorption in soils, gradually adding more complexity until the eventual conclusion (with a small postscript of a digressive nature at the end), so there was some sort of plot to be followed.

This isn't always reflected in student attendance, of course. Last week I stood in front of the same third-year soil science class and gave what I felt was the best lecture I'd given in that unit - to an audience of five students. My gentle wander through the development of theory about bioavailability in soils (see this blog's post on the terrestrial biotic ligand model, which helped me get my thoughts around some of this) was pleasing to me and apparently engaging to students, partly because there was a story to be told.

It would be easy (and conceited) to assume that all good lectures have an element of narrative. And an even more headstrong generalization to claim that any scientific presentation, a thesis included, will benefit from having a strong story thread. But I find that it works for me, and helps me get my head in order.

I've been thinking about this for a while, and I assume that others more attuned to things educational have too. But I haven't found much on the topic of narrative structure in [scientific] lectures - I wonder if anyone else has?

Oh, and by the way, the image was thoughtfully prepared for me as part of an assignment for a soil science unit last semester. The perpetrators can identify themselves here if they so wish.