Facilitating Scientific Inquiry Skills through Fiction-Based Learning

Abstract

Scientific inquiry skills (e.g., observation, critical analysis, hypothesis generation) are the cornerstone of scientific training, yet these skills are seldom taught. Consequently, an inquiry-based course was created at McMaster University, Science of Fictional Characters, that facilitates students to develop scientific inquiry skills. By analysing the feasibility of fictional characters in the real world, students apply and understand concepts in various scientific disciplines (e.g., biology, psychology, physics). This course embeds a variety of active learning strategies to foster the development of skills relevant to the scientific process, including group projects, written reflections, and Socratic discussions and debates. To gather student opinions about the effectiveness of the course, we administered an end-of-term survey, a modified version of the Course Interest Survey (CIS). This self-reported CIS included five subscales: student attention, relevance, confidence, satisfaction, and scientific inquiry skill development. Of the 17 surveys completed, on average the subscales scored above four on a five-point scale. Additionally, we performed a thematic analysis on 15 reflective assignments. Qualitatively, 10 codes were extracted from the student testimonies, which were grouped into four themes: student satisfaction, perceived applicability, course flexibility, and barriers to learning. Both data types revealed that students were engaged with the course and felt they improved their scientific inquiry skills. Our data further suggest the course would benefit from additional foundational scientific content. Nevertheless, the study provides an example of how fiction and an active learning model can create an engaging, skills-based learning environment in a science course.