We teachers of science, technology, engineering and mathematics often believe in the existence of the only objective truth. The electron will circle around the core, magnet will attract iron, the leaves will carry photosynthesis irrespective of whether we believe in it or not ... and never our opinion on whether something is true or not will affect the nature and its laws.
The economy is already different. Experienced marketing professionals know that it is equally important and what we think of a product , as much as the product itself. The promoters of promotion strategies know that preoccupations are often stronger than the truth, and play on that card.
We can freely say that there is a difference between "what is" and what we "think it is," and the decision-making process will be based on our opinion on a topic, area, or in this case a future occupation.
If our disciple wants to enter the world of science, how would he create a picture of who scientists are and what they are actually doing?
I will concentrate on only two sources of information about scientists our student has on dissemination, which are school and films.
School
If we just look at the lower gallery, I'm sure that we will all recognize at least a few names and that's right. Their works (or weeks) are worth the attention, and if we have to use only one word to describe them, that word would be ... giants.
The same word that Hawking used to describe them in his book ''"On the Shoulders of Giants"because they really are.
But if we allow the only meeting of our students to be just with the above-mentioned giants, we will create a fake picture of the science that is dealt with by only rare and extremely talented people.
Movies
A film scientist is most often described as stereotyped. He is obsessed with the doctrine, can do anything, he can not talk to girls, he is trying to rule the world, he is trapped ... and occasionally he has troubles with dinosaurs.
Whether it's a bad guy (Lex Lutor, Mr. Freeze ...), a hero (Bruce Banner ...) or an accompanying character (Doc Brown, Hans Zarkov ...), the "artistic freedom" of representing a scientist does not correspond to the real picture.
The situation is even worse if we look at stereotypes about female scientists in films. You can find more about it at the following linku.
Reality
Only on the basis of the preceding one we can conclude that the scientists or something untouchable, great and powerful (Einstein, Lutor ...), or something comical (Dr Strangelove ...)
But
For example, on one of the two below photos there is a real scientist. Can you guess where?
So it was on A. It was too obvious, was not it? Otherwise, my former student, and today a doctor at the Faculty of Physics, and a singer at leisure.
Scientists have hobbies, families, and go on a regular basis for their work. They do not differ in any way from us "ordinary" mortals.
Paparazzo scince
The activity I have conducted with my students since this year consists of shooting short films (or writing scripts only) with comic elements from the life of scientists precisely with the goal of showing great great giants as people with all their virtues and defects.
Sorry for the poor quality of the image, but we're still learning.
In the first part of my activities, my students and I are exploring the lives of scientists, choosing the ones we are about to write, making plans.
Then, when writing a scenario of JUDICIAL, it's important to put the lesson into the script itself. Only in this way we get a useful teaching tool. If we were to make a film about Alexander Fleming, we would also mention how to properly use antibiotics, the film about Tesla would have had a few sentences about the characteristics of alternating current ...
In the upper film, while we are talking about Galileo, a free-fall experiment was made as an introduction to the story of movement in the gravitational field. But the experiment was given in a comical way, in the form of a broadcast, which brings the gossip from the world of science.
In order to bring scientists' lives closer, we use the elements of the game and contemporary pop culture. It remains to be seen how this activity will affect our students.
For the end of the day, another short film, which my students, as an informal group, recorded as part of the "Young Laws" project.