The impact of popular audio-visual media on the scientific knowledge of adolescents

Abstract

Students learn and assimilate scientific information from a variety of informal sources, including television and movies. Since such forms of media often stretch the truth or present fiction as fact, it is possible that young adults develop a warped understanding of scientific information which may hinder (or aid) formal science education in a classroom setting. This study aimed to determine how science learned from informal audio visual sources affects knowledge gained in the classroom. Further, it attempted to discern whether gender or age was a variable. The study was mixed methods in nature; a case study examined how grade 6-8 students from a private, international school in Turkey acquired scientific knowledge from a movie and a television show that contained concepts not related to the school's science curriculum. Additionally, grade 6-10 students, on rotation, watched a movie/television show in class that contained scientific information relating to the curriculum. Data from discussions and responses to key questions relating to the scientific content before and after the viewing of the movie/television show were used for analysis. This study found that students acquire knowledge from movies and television shows but are unable to relate this knowledge to information acquired in a classroom. However, the nature and extent of the information that students acquire from movies/television shows depends on age, gender and the scientific content itself.