Aliens in the Classroom: Fantastical Creatures as Tools in Teaching Biology

Abstract

Creatures from science fiction and fantasy can be used to illustrate key concepts and principles in biology. This article describes a project for a university-level general zoology course wherein the students classify, down to at least the phylum level, “animals” from the Alien Species Wiki (2013). This is an online database of creatures from television, film, literature, and games. The primary challenges that the students faced were overly fantastical hybridizations and assigning reality-based classification mechanisms to fictional beings, but the project is a useful exercise in creativity, knowledge of diagnostic characteristics, and the wonder of discovery of new, previously unexplainable physio-morphologies.

The Affordances of Fiction for Teaching Chemistry

“…Regardless of the nature of the delivery media, whether the inclusion of H.G. Wells print novels or modern digital film, science educators have argued for years that the inclusion of fiction and not just objective facts can be a strong motivator for learning and venue for enhancing deeper understanding of science as a discipline (Bixler, 2007;Cruz, 2013;Dark, 2005;Liberko, 2004;Milanick and Prewitt, 2013). Although the incorporation of science video media into classroom instruction has vast applications, few have studied the process and with enough scrutiny to connect science achievement with the introduction of science fiction.…”