It doesn’t take a genius to notice how busy kids are outside of school with things like the internet, TV, video games, and texting. What if we were able to bring those things into the classroom to help keep students interested in the content we want them to understand? With the reality TV phase slowly ending, there have been more shows introduced that focus on science ideas in an entertaining way (think: House, CSI, Law and Order, NCIS, The First 48, Numb3rs, etc.). My newest idea on how to make science interesting for all students focuses on how we can bring these shows into the classroom to jumpstart learning.
Many of the shows that I am talking about how main characters that use a lot of critical thinking during the 43 minutes of show time… this, too, needs to be brought into the classroom. Start by watching some clips of these skills in action. Next, have your class go through an investigation of whatever type you’d like. If you want to model your classroom after House and you are studying diseases, create a disease mystery. If you want your class to understand forensic investigations, set up a fake crime scene. Either of these activities would be best done in small groups of 3-5. If you structure your activities well enough, students can “solve” the mystery using science inquiry!
A nice side effect of doing this in your class is to highlight the skills of a few students who really excel in this area. Many times “scientists” are seen as geeky and are not widely accepted. Even though the shows are clearly fictional, they still shed light on science processes and bring more acceptance of scientists. It is also important to note that many PBS shows (think: Nova) can be watched online and are great accurate sources for many science ideas. Find a Nova episode that matches up with the forensic science idea you’re focusing on (for example: blood splatter) and show parts of that to teach content.
Like I’ve mentioned, this can be done in small groups when the activity/mystery is introduced to all students at the same time but if your science exploration is done in centers, the same things can be done – you just may need a few more mysteries!
Sara-
ReplyDeleteWhen you said that you could use shows like CSI and House to help set up science experiments in the classroom, I thought that was a great connection for students. They could relate their learning to shows that they watch on tv. One thing that I thought of was when we had to solve that murder mystery in Science methods class and how we used inquiry to determine what actually happened at the scene of the crime. I think you could also do something like that too. How fun would it be to have your class work in small groups and do an activity similar to what we did in class and then discuss with the rest of the class their findings and what they believed really happened. A great way to incorporate science inquiry into your lesson!
Let me provide a different perspective. Most of the T.V. shows you mention promote inaccuracies in how science is actually done - problems are solved in 45 minutes, lab results are done in 5 minutes, all science must be experimental, scientists "prove" results. All of these are blatantly false.
ReplyDeleteAlso, while the TV shows might be interesting to students, most of the content is developmentally inappropriate or so shallow that using the shows to teach content doesn't make a lot of sense.
Using TV for student entertainment also sends the message that all things worth doing should be fun. If I only did things that were fun, very little would actually get done in my life.
So, please, use caution before bringing TV shows into the classroom.
Jerrid, the idea of using these shows in the classroom is not to provide accuracy. The idea is to bring fun in and use them as a motivation tool. If you noticed, I mentioned the shows would be used to enhance the lesson and would not be used as a substitute for teaching. I agree that using TV shows in a classroom may be an issue for some, but if done correctly and if the clips are chosen well, there should be no issues. As teachers, we have to meet our students in a place that they are willing and open to learn - for some students, the traditional science classroom is not a place for them; therefore, we need to find new ways to reach them and make science fun. Using TV shows in the classroom is only one of those ways. If you feel uncomfortable using them that's ok because there are all kinds of other ideas you can use to help motivate students and make learning fun.
ReplyDeleteI love the idea of using tv show to ignite learning. I wrote a blog about current children shows that have science themes.
ReplyDeletehttp://uwo1.blogspot.com/2010/11/science-tip.html
I'm not sure if I would use shows like csi, numbers, or house because I think the science used is at to high of a level or not really accurate. Although if structured right I think they could be quite successful.