Reaching Nonscience Students Through Science Fiction

Abstract

In 2006 I had the chance to design a physics course for students not majoring in scientific fields. I chose to shape the course around science fiction, not as a source for quantitative problems but as a means for conveying important physics concepts. I hoped that, by encountering these concepts in narratives, students with little or no science or math training might become more comfortable with them. I also thought the stories might provide the ideas with a context that would enable students to remember them more clearly than if they were reading a physics textbook.

How Do People Think About the Science They Encounter in Fiction? Undergraduates investigate responses to science inThe Simpsons

“…Numerous journal papers, popular books and websites detail the 'bad science' in movies, often with a view to using the films to teach 'good science' through critiquing the errors (e.g. Bixler, 2007;Dubeck, Moshier, & Boss, 1994;Rose, 2003;Smith, 2009), but sometimes motivated by a concern that incorrect science in fiction is dangerous for science. Physicist Sidney Perkowitz, who made headlines when he declared that movies should only be allowed one scientific inaccuracy (Sample, 2010), has written that such inaccuracies 'may not affect the inspirational value of these films, but mistakes or deliberate distortion can do more harm than good to science literacy and public understanding of science' (Perkowitz, 2007, p. 218).…”

Engaging With the Present by Exploring the Future: Critical Potential of Science Fiction in Education

“…What the authors here note is the difficulty with which one finds SF educational resourcesscattered throughout various disciplines and mediums, a concrete body of work at the intersection of SF and education remains difficult to locate. While SF is increasing in popularity and more work is being done in this area, I noted a few common patterns in research which fall outside my focus within this project: approaches which conflate science fiction and fantasy, ignoring the genre characteristics of SF which I argue are increasingly important in order for SF to be considered a 'critical' genre, or that take a defensive stance as opposed to a practical one in justifying SF being used in the classroom (Bucher & Manning, 2001;Cook & Dinkins, 2015); considerations of SF in relation to technology in education (Alexander, 2009;Andrews, 2015;Berne & Schummer, 2005;Mason, 2013); or work that explores the use of SF in subjects other than English, most notably in science courses (Oravetz, 2005;Singh, 2014;Smith, 2009;Subramaniam, Ahn, Waugh, & Druin, 2012;Vrasidas, Avraamidou, Theodoridou, Themistokleous & Panaou, 2015). In addition, much of this research is conducted at the post-secondary level.…”

UPCT-Bloopbusters: Teaching Science and Technology through Movie Scenes and related Experiments

“…Specifically, when it comes to teaching physics or engineering, the use of science fiction movie scenes can represent an interesting complementary methodology to illustrate how (or how not) the laws of physics of our universe behave, while at the same time having fun (Asimov, 1968;Everitt & Patterson, 1999;Chandler, 2002;Daley, 2004;Dark, 2005;Berne & Schummer, 2005). Furthermore, it should be noted that, through science fiction movies, students not familiarized with scientific fields can be stimulated so that new scientific and technological vocations may be awaked (Smith, 2009).…”