Public Engagement Tools: Science Fiction and a Free Tee Shirt
Kym Murphy, a retired Sr. VP at Disney, recently posted an interesting suggestion in reply to the post: Benefits and Challenges of Engaging the Public:
“Many years ago I read an exciting fictional novel about World War II. It was riveting, heart wrenching, sexy and full of accurate information regarding this important historical chapter that has stuck with me to this day.
Then came, “Pillars of Earth”, Di Vince Code”, etc., etc. All works of fiction but amazingly thought provoking and educational. I refer to reading novels such as these as, “inadvertant learning.”
I bring this up, because I believe this form of learning (stimulation) is rarely used by our country’s science teachers/professors. I’m sure there are those who would scoff at this approach, but what better way to learn than through enjoyable experiences!”
Thank you, Kym. Hey, no need to concern ourselves with scoffy educators*. The majority of the visitors to this site have completed school (I have absolutely no data to back that up) so we can think aloud here as independent, free-thinking adults. Shake off Sister Mary’s elements chart and say tootles to Mr. Zapparo’s pickled pig-in-a-jar. We’re starting over. Learning science from scratch. Social Network Science we’ll call it. For now. Until I’m sued for some copyright infringement.
I say we give your idea of learning science through science fiction stories a shot and raise the stakes a bit by posing a challenge. A free Science Cheerleader t-shirt to the first size-medium person who reads at least one science fiction book and reports back here what (if any) “real science” was learned.
To get you started, here’s a list of top science fiction books, compiled by Business Week.
*Note to NEA attorney: We are fortunate to count among our visitors intelligent, innovative and non-scoffy science educators.
Cheers!
Tags: Business Week, Public Engagement, Science Fiction, science literacy, Social network science
June 9th, 2008 at 12:26 am
[…] unknown wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptI say we give your idea of learning science through science fiction stories a shot and raise the stakes a bit by posing a challenge. A free Science Cheerleader t-shirt to the first size-medium person who reads at least one science … […]
June 10th, 2008 at 11:59 am
Very interesting update on the importance of science fictions as an educational tool for the public. I was especially interested in the “Galatea2.2″ listing and will call Borders book store today to order it.
Have you heard of the book entitled, “Don’t Know Much About The Universe” by Kenneth C. Davis? It asks the kinds of questions that we may have wanted to ask back in school but didn’t have the nerve to inquire about.
June 10th, 2008 at 4:57 pm
I heard DONNA SHIRLEY speak at an NSTA convention years ago, and she was quite inspiring re: growing up female in a world that wasn’t encouraging to her interests in engineering and science. She found her encouragement, inspiration, and ultimate destiny in science fiction books about Mars.
In her own words, from the Academy of Achievement article about her:
“When I was 12 or so I started reading science fiction. … I read Arthur C. Clarke’s The Sands of Mars, and Ray Bradbury’s Martian Chronicles, and Heinlein’s books about Mars, and just got completely fascinated with the idea of Mars and going into space and space travel.”
Donna eventually managed the Mars Exploration program for JPL.
June 11th, 2008 at 6:11 pm
Once upon a time, I created (but didn’t give) a presentation entitled “Everything I Needed to Know About Technical Writing I Learned from Reading Science Fiction.” My basic argument is that:
The SF writer:
–Describes an unfamiliar world
–Creates challenges related to or brought about by real or imagined aspects of science
–Provides solutions to those challenges based on knowledge learned in the environment
The technical communicator:
–Seeks to help the user understand an unfamiliar technology and solve certain problems based on the communicator’s description of that technology
I used typical SF milieus–”Enormous Big Thing” stories, time travel stories, and SF detective stories–as means of teaching technical communicators mental approaches for dealing with completely new topics or technologies. I summed up with:
You might not ever encounter “enormous big things,” time travel, or crimes in space, BUT…
You can face large mysteries
You can face documents or processes that need to be placed in chronological order…or some other order that makes sense to the user at the time
You may experience “crimes” related to human-technology interactions. So…
Read some science fiction today!
/b
My exhortation
June 11th, 2008 at 8:37 pm
I read your recent(?) article on Science Fiction and Science. It is gratifying to know that you see and promote the idea that good science fiction contains good science. Certainly most of our book do.
June 12th, 2008 at 11:24 pm
[…] other day I reported here on a reader’s idea to consider science fiction as a serious source of science information. […]
June 17th, 2008 at 3:21 pm
I picked up “Little Brother” as it came highly recommended. Its not really sci-fi but I’ve only read a fraction of it and have already learned a ton about information technology. Cory Doctorow talks about the book, movie technology, and public understanding at the AV club as well - http://www.avclub.com/content/interview/cory_doctorow/1
July 2nd, 2008 at 9:53 am
[…] Your Science Cheerleader T-Shirt is on its way. Bart was the first to respond to this post in which readers were challenged to read science fiction books and report back on what […]