Science Fiction is a great learning and information tool on so many levels, as the following report illustrates. MH
by Russ Colson
Earth Science Issues
Tue, 07 Jan 2020 12:00 UTC
© Unknown
Abstract: Students in an introductory college geology course engaged in one of two exercises to learn more about the concept of cross cutting relationships, a major principle in stratigraphy. One exercise involved writing a report on the concept, the other involved writing a science fiction story based on the concept. Preliminary results suggest that students who engaged with the material within the context of science fiction writing gained a deeper understanding.
As a professor of geology and a science fiction writer, I became curious this past academic term about how science fiction writing might influence students’ perceptions of science or their understanding of science ideas. Science fiction is fiction of course, and not intended to be real science. However I thought that science fiction writing might engage students in thinking about science concepts and perhaps provide an educational tool comparable to other science learning methods.
I developed a small study in which volunteer students in an introductory college geology course (who received incentive in the form of extra credit improvement of grades) investigated the concept of crosscutting relationships. The concept of cross cutting relationships is a key principle in the geological field of stratigraphy and one of the main tools by which geologists inferred the story of Earth’s past. Cross cutting relationships should not be confused with the Next Generation Science Standards’ concept of cross cutting concepts which is something different entirely.
Students had already learned about cross cutting relationships in the course within the context of understanding the story of the Great Unconformity at the Grand Canyon. After this introduction to the idea, volunteers were randomly assigned to one of two groups. The first group investigated cross cutting relationships independently online (I offered a few search words and phrases to help get them started) and were assigned to write a summary report of the key ideas of cross cutting relationships. The second group also investigated cross cutting relationships independently online (given the same search words and phrases) and were then assigned to write a flash science fiction story in which a cross cutting relationship was a key plot turning point.
Both groups took a pre-test before being assigned to a group, and then a post-test after completing the assignment. The pre and post tests included four multiple choice questions and two short essay questions. All questions dealt with identifying and interpreting cross cutting relationships and inferring sequential events based on various types of cross cutting relationships. Each multiple choice question had two correct answers out of five possible answers with each correct answer scoring five points. The essay questions were scored on a strict rubric that awarded points for correctness, creativity, and completeness of answers, with one essay scoring up to seven points and the other up to eight points. The post test was the same as the pre test with the exception that two of the four multiple choice questions were rewritten to address the same concept but with slightly different question stem and answers. To limit bias during scoring, I did not know while scoring whether a participant was in group 1 or 2.
Total points possible on both pre and post-test was 55 with an expected random guessing score of 16. The average pre-test score was 31.75. The average post-test score was 41.75. The difference indicates an overall improvement in understanding due to completion of the exercise.
Comparison between the two groups is made in the graph below. Circles show individual changes from pre- to post-test; squares show average changes for each group. Uncertainty bars show 1-sigma standard deviation from the mean value.
The improvement in scores of the group that wrote the science fiction stories is actually higher than the group that wrote a report specifically addressing cross cutting relationships. Although the number of participants is small, the difference between the two groups is significant at the 95% confidence level. This difference cannot be attributed to only one or two participants skewing the results one way or another since three of the four participants who wrote the science fiction stories show more improvement than any of those who wrote the report and half of those who wrote the report are lower than any of those who wrote a short story. At the very least, it seems likely that the science fiction writing exercise works better than report writing for some students in some instances.
This project is ongoing since the present participant number is quite low, but these initial results are intriguing. What might account for a difference between the group that wrote a report and the group that wrote a short story? One possibility is that when students write reports they are often focused on moving information and ideas they find online into their own report and therefore can potentially write a report with very little engagement with the ideas. In contrast, writing a science fiction story based on science ideas requires students to engage with the ideas and translate those ideas into a different context. Engaging with the material and figuring out a way to apply it in a new context requires that students make the ideas their own, which is the real objective of a learning assignment.
These initial results offer something to think about as we try to design better learning experiences for students. Teaching science involves not only exposing students to ideas, but finding ways to engage students in the process of making those ideas their own. Sometimes, and for some students, focusing specifically on the science may be less beneficial than encouraging students to apply their understanding in a different context.
Russ Colson is a professor of geology at Minnesota State University Moorhead, a former national professor of the year (2010), coauthor of the NSTA Press book Learning to Read the Earth and Sky (an exploration the nature of earth science and how it can be included as an investigative practice in the classroom), and author of the science fiction novel The Arasmith Certainty Principle. He edits the website Issues in Earth Science, which publishes essays on fiction and science education and short stories that address ideas in earth science along with teacher resources.
