Physics education faces challenges in making abstract concepts relatable for students, resulting in decreased interest and high attrition rates in STEM (McDermott, 2001; Singh & Marshman, 2015). The perceived disconnect between physics content and personal relevance often leads competent students to drop out (Aschbacher & Roth, 2010). To combat this alienation, innovative pedagogical approaches that merge abstract ideas with human stories are essential (Barton & Tan, 2010). Research indicates that project-based learning and storytelling enhance student engagement and connection to the material (Kalender & Holmes, 2020; Tuveri, Sideri & Fadda, 2024).

Storytelling is a vital pedagogical instrument in physics education, adeptly integrating abstract concepts into significant human contexts (Hansson et al., 2019; Tuveri et al., 2024). It enhances student engagement, curiosity, and self-efficacy, as evidenced by various studies across educational levels. For example, storytelling helps make difficult concepts like light (Maharaj-Sharma, 2024) and gravitational waves (Tuveri et al., 2024) easier to understand. It also promotes cognitive and affective development, with techniques like "story mapping" improving students' perceptions of science (Korkmaz, 2011).

Digital technology has enhanced traditional narrative methodologies, creating digital storytelling (DST), a multimedia approach that blends videos, images, music, and interactive aspects into coherent narrative structures (Sadik, 2008). DST fosters interactive learning experiences, highlighting the dual function of storytelling in education as a means for conceptual engagement and communication (Sadik, 2008; Wu & Chen, 2020).

Book trailers, an example of DST, originating as marketing tools in the early 2000s, have evolved into significant multimedia presentations for summarizing and promoting books (Underwood, 2010). In educational settings, they function as projects that improve digital literacy and creativity, enabling students to conceptualize themes and emotions from texts (Grøn, 2014). Research indicates that book trailers foster motivation, creativity, and communication skills while promoting critical literacy and digital competence among learners. By engaging in digital media production, students gain agency and improved attitudes towards science, integrating cognitive and emotional learning alongside historical narratives (Ehret et al., 2016; Tang et al., 2021). The study of creating a book trailer for Marie Curie serves as a significant example for exploring the pedagogical aspects of DST (Yılmaz-Senem & Kösem, 2025). This approach may reshape students' perceptions of scientists, boosting their self-efficacy and motivation. The Biographical Book Trailer Production (BBTP) framework is proposed in this study as a method to humanize physics education by combining biographical storytelling and digital video production.

The BBTP framework aims to engage students actively in understanding the lives of physicists, moving them beyond merely receiving scientific facts. It consists of three phases: (1) selecting a physicist, (2) facilitating creative production, and (3) evaluating learning outcomes. In the first phase, the selection of a physicist is crucial, as it sets the foundation for students' conceptual, epistemic, and affective learning experiences, challenging stereotypes and strengthening science identity. Biographies serve as instructional tools rather than mere historical context, humanizing science by emphasizing the socio-cultural dimensions of scientific achievement. This study offers physicists such as Marie Curie, Galilei, Faraday, Einstein, Franklin, Newton, Feynman, Bohr, and Meitner, and related physics topics, proposing educators a structured guide for purposeful and context-sensitive implementation from middle school to university-level physics. The framework in the second phase guides students through a systematic progression of four stages: 1. Biographical Immersion and Thematic Identification: Students engage deeply with the physicist's life, identifying significant moments that resonate personally and distilling these into core themes that inform their creative projects. 2. Scripting and Visual Planning: Students create concise trailers focused on pivotal moments and tensions in the physicist's journey while planning the visuals and narratives that enhance their stories. 3. Digital Production and Editing: They translate their scripts into a draft trailer using digital tools, emphasizing clarity and coherence, with teacher feedback guiding the refinement of their product. 4. Peer Review and Presentation: Finally, students present their trailers, engage in peer feedback, and reflect on their creative decisions, transforming them from mere consumers of scientific narratives to active creators and communicators. In the third phase, evaluation is comprehensive, emphasizing cognitive, affective, and epistemic outcomes. It includes evaluative measures of both the process and the final product, using various data sources to gauge student understanding and emotional engagement with science and its social implications. The first stage focuses on biographical readings, yielding formative data as students reflect on impactful moments in a scientist's life, indicating their developing historical empathy and emotional involvement. The trailers serve as artifacts showcasing students' interpretation of scientific narratives, bolstered by structured presentations that reveal their narrative intentions. Teacher feedback and revisions emphasize clarity and accuracy over personal interpretation. Additionally, various data sources such as reflective writings and classroom discussions help teachers/researchers analyze learners' negotiation of identity and values, establishing biography-based digital storytelling as a rigorous educational practice that deepens students' emotional connections to science.

This study presents the Biographical Book Trailer Production (BBTP) framework, which integrates multimodal storytelling with historical scientific narratives to enhance physics education. The BBTP addresses challenges such as abstraction and reduced learner agency in physics classrooms by placing students in the role of active creators and interpreters of scientific stories. The framework promotes three measurable outcomes: 1. Enhanced Nature of Science (NOS) Engagement: Students engage with the social and ethical dimensions of science through historical figures like Franklin and Meitner. 2. Strengthened Agency and Identity: Assuming creative roles fosters a sense of belonging within the scientific community. 3. Multimodal Communication: Students learn to convey complex concepts, such as quantum mechanics, through visually engaging narratives, enhancing their digital literacy. Overall, BBTP provides a model for enriching physics instruction by emphasizing the humanistic aspects of science. However, the study acknowledges limitations, including the lack of empirical evidence from classroom applications and the critical role of teacher facilitation, which may vary based on teachers' familiarity with materials and creative techniques. Future research could assess BBTP's effectiveness across diverse educational contexts and explore strategies to support educators. Additionally, factors influencing student engagement, particularly regarding selected biographies' cultural significance, could be examined, as well as considerations surrounding digital equity affecting students' access and experience with technology. Systematic empirical research is necessary to validate and refine BBTP as an instructional framework for fostering a more inclusive and human-centered approach to physics education.

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