For the past 20 years, a constant effort has been made by physics teachers and communication specialists to promote the use of characters from comics or science fiction films in physics teaching practice, because of its positive impact on student motivation and attention. This implementation often comes up against the problem of obtaining…

In the study, it is aimed to examine the relationship between science fiction self-efficacy and spatial ability of science teacher candidates. The study is quantitative research and correlation research was used as a research design. The study group consisting of 200 science teacher candidates was formed by using the convenience sampling method.…

This exploratory case study affirmed the merit of using science fiction-inspired story writing to help Saudi Arabian Grade 10 female students learn science. Recognizing that teacher-centered rote learning was not reaching her rural students in the western part of Riyadh Province, the female teacher in this case switched to the constructivist…

In this article, we present reflections on the possible dialogs between literary creation and science teaching. Our considerations will be directed to the work of Mary Shelley, Frankenstein, and the role of science and science education over the text that gave rise to the genre "science fiction." This work aims at presenting the…

A nonmajors general chemistry course entitled "Putting the Science in SciFi" was taught to 19 seniors at the College of the Holy Cross in 2018. The course coupled the delivery of content with experiential learning strategies in the form of writing assignments and hands-on activities. A pretest and posttest indicate that students gained…

The aim of this research is to determine the effect of science-fiction books on arousing secondary school students' curiosity about science. The research was conducted with 60 students attending 5th and 6th grades in a secondary school in Giresun, Guce district, during 2015-2016 academic year. The students were divided into two groups as one…

In an educational context, multimedia content can be created by the students, by the faculty, or by a third party. With the aim of improving the lab work, motivation, and active learning in introductory electronics courses, several innovative technologies and instructional strategies were considered involving these three possibilities: real-time…

Big Brother, newspeak, doublethink, vapourised people and thought police became worldwide famous expressions. 1984 novel portrays a nightmare society controlled by information manipulation and by suppression of both history and science. This study aimed to investigate the impact of using the 1984 dystopian novel associated with socio-scientific…

As science fiction has a way of capturing the human imagination that few other genres can rival, this study sought to investigate the effects of using science fiction on the performance and interest of high school chemistry students. An action research approach was used to guide the first author's practice as she studied two college preparatory…

The unfortunate negative attitude toward physics among many students, including science majors, warrants creative approaches to teaching required physics courses. One such approach is to integrate science fiction into the curriculum, either in the form of movies or the written word. Historically this has been done since at least the 1970s, and by…

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…

The use of science fiction for teaching thermodynamics to introductory students is described. The universality and the tremendous predictive power of thermodynamics is demonstrated.

Molecular evolution provides an interesting context in which to use problem-based learning because it integrates a variety of topics in biology, biochemistry, and molecular biology. This three-stage problem for advanced students deals with the structure, multiple functions, and properties of lactate dehydrogenase isozymes, and the related…

This paper discusses pedagogical advantages and challenges of using science-fiction movies and television shows in an introductory science class for elementary teachers. The authors describe two instructional episodes in which scenes from the movies "Red Planet" and "The Core" were used to engage students in critiquing science as presented in…

The term "science fiction" has become synonymous, in the media at least, for any discovery in science too incredible or unexpected for the nonscientist to imagine. One of the most common classroom uses of science fiction is for students to pick out flaws in science fiction movies or television shows. Unfortunately, this approach can result in…