Learn through story: Children learn basic knowledge about the world, history, science, math, and many other things through fun characters from the world of THE OCTOPUS WARS!

DESCRIPTION:  During the day, I work as a professor of neuroscience, but, in the evenings, for fun, my daughter and I collaborate on a podcast, The Octopus Wars, which consists of old-style, humorous tales set in Mendoza, wine country, during the 1940s.  This turned out to be a fun and educational family project.  While working on the podcast, I noticed that my daughter and her friends had many questions, not just about the tales and the magical world of The Octopus Wars, but about world history, science, language, and many other things.  I realized that I could teach many things through the funny characters in the story, which is what led to the present book series.

As an educator and a father, I have learned that, when it comes to teaching, the best form of teaching can occur through a story, when the student does not even know that the learning is taking place. I have also learned that, in some cases, “less is more.”  The critical thing is to present the right information in the right amount.  (I have learned the hard way, when teaching neuroscience, that presenting too much information can be worse than presenting no information at all!)  Too many learning stimuli—graphs, images, and figures—presented all at once can sometimes overwhelm and discourage the learner.  The right information at the right amount serves as a scaffold for future learning, and fun stories keep the student engaged and wanting more.  Make sure to check out the accompanying educational book, The Octopus Wars Educational Series: Level 1.      

I hope that you enjoy these educational podcasts as much as my family and I enjoyed creating them.

Ezequiel Morsella, 
San Francisco, 4 September, 2022

Ezequiel Morsella, professor of neuroscience and storyteller, was born in Buenos Aires but raised in Miami since the age of six. He conducted his doctoral research at Columbia University and his postdoctoral training at Yale. He is now a faculty member at San Francisco State University and the department of neurology at University of California, San Francisco. His research on the brain's conscious and unconscious processes involved in action production (a topic that he has investigated since high school) has led to more than 100 scientific publications, including The Oxford Handbook of Human Action.  His research was covered by Time Magazine. His fiction has appeared in literary journals such as Italian Americana. His tales take place during the forties in the wine-making immigrant province of Mendoza, Argentina. 

Visit THE OCTOPUS WARS website at:
http://emsfsu.podomatic.net/

For information about Morsella's scientific research, click here:
https://faculty.sfsu.edu/~morsella/home