The aims of this study are to suggest some methods of using Sci-Fi movies for school science teaching, to illustrate an effective way of implementing the methods by developing a CD-Rom teaching material, and to discuss the problems and their solution...
The aims of this study are to suggest some methods of using Sci-Fi movies for school science teaching, to illustrate an effective way of implementing the methods by developing a CD-Rom teaching material, and to discuss the problems and their solutions of the suggested methods when they are applied to actual teaching situations.
Every science teacher who has some experience of teaching science in schools are familiar with the fact that students are lack of interests in science class and that the higher grade, the less interests in science.
Using multimedia in science classes would be quite effective for students who are very much familiar with computer and multimedia games. And using Sci-Fi movies in science classes is effective not only by making students motivated but also by providing multimedia materials.
As the first step of the study, various preconceptions appeared in movies are analyzed on the basis of the category in one existing literature on students' preconceptions on science. A number of frequently-appeared preconceptions in the movies were identified and categorized.
For the second step of the study, to illustrate the potential usage of Sci-Fi movies in science classes, two representative movies, i.e., Armageddon' and 'Deep Impact', were chosen and compared from various aspects of the movies and then 6 ways (Discussion, Calculation and problem aspects of the movies and then 6 ways (Discussion, Calculation and problem solving, Explanations, Investigation, Role Playing, Using IT) to use Sci-Fi movies in science classes were suggested.
To get professional advices for the 6 suggested ways, after some demonstrative instruction by the researcher, 39 science teachers who were taking part in in-service training course were asked to express their opinions about using Sci-Fi movies in science classes. While most of the teachers expressed positive anticipation of using Sci-Fi movies in science classes, some teachers mentioned the difficulty of preparing Sci-Fi movies for teaching activities.
To lower the teacher's burden, the researcher developed a CD-Rom, named "SF & Physics", which can be easily used in science class by ordinary teachers. On the process of making CD-Rom, various comments and advices, via a questionnaire and researchers' personal internet homepage, from science teachers and specialists were gathered and considered.
Finally, the newly developed CD-Rom was put into practice with two high school classes by their teachers and the implementation situations were observed in detail by the researcher. Although several problems were found, both teachers and students seemed to be satisfied with the use of the CD-Rom. The students showed more positive responses than teachers about using Sci-Fi movies.
Despite some problems of using Sci-Fi movies in actual science classes, these problems could be solved by developing well-prepared CD-Rom teaching materials as illustrated in this study. However, it is difficult for each individual teacher to develop a good CD-Rom materials, so it is important to develop CD-Roms more systematically, for instance organized by the Ministry of Education, and to distribute the CD-Roms to science teachers in local schools.