M.A. Project and Research:
"Science Fiction and the STEM Fields"
I chose to do a "final project" in place of a thesis as the final part of my master's degree. For this final project, I created a year-long, high-school-level course and conducted research to support the course rationale. The research involved conducting a mixed-methods survey at a STEM-focused middle school. The yearlong course featured eight, standards-aligned units that used science fiction as a tool for interdisciplinary learning between the language arts and the sciences. If you would like to see my defense presentation or read an adapted version of it, please see this blog post.
This project was awarded Distinction in October 2015.
The Course
The main component of my final project - and what made it a project rather than a thesis - is the yearlong, eight unit course, titled "Science Fiction and the STEM Fields." The imagined context for this course is a STEM-focused high school in Colorado.
However, it is important to note that this course was constructed in a vacuum and before I student taught. There are a variety of aspects that would need adjustment before this course could be implemented. Therefore, it is best viewed as a toolbox or a collection of ideas from which to pick and choose useful materials and concepts. Everything on this course website is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial 4.0 International License (unless otherwise stated). A phrase I became attached to during through my education program is "pedagogy is theft." If anything on this website is useful to you, please feel free to make use of it. However, since this is part of my professional work, these materials may not be sold, and I would very much appreciate attribution.
Example units from this course include: "Foundation and Childhood's End: Close Reading and Introductory Unit" (which will include reading Ender's Game) and "The Pale Blue Dot: Ecocriticism Unit" (which will include reading Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind).
Course work will include building strategies for close and critical reading, research projects and papers (relating to both fiction and non-fiction), producing and analyzing visual texts, and the "Archive at the End of the World" assignment.
For more information about this course, please see the course website.
The Research
Since this is an unusual course, I would need strong support for it if I intend to teach it in the future. I could construct an effective, rhetorical defense of the course, but I also know that many schools and districts would expect more objective, evidence-based support before the course would be approved. To that end, I conducted an exploratory study at a STEM-focused middle school. By "exploratory study," I mean that one objective of this study was to assess my research tools; I expected that my tools would need revision before I would apply them to a broader context. I used a mixed-method research model in this study: my survey included both quantitative and qualitative aspects. Specifically, the study included Likert-type scale questions and open-ended question.
Structurally, this research was similar to a thesis. There were only a few variations. If you contact me, I would be happy to discuss this research in more depth, but since I am currently looking to publish this work, I will not be providing it in full on this website. Related to my desire to publish this research, I received approval from the Institutional Review Board and the school district before conducting this research.
Research Overview
Context: Jemison Middle School (an alias) - a STEM-focused middle school in the Western United States
Participants: 107 middle school students (split between 6th and 8th grade) and their 3 language arts teachers
Research Questions:
From the perspective of 107 students and 3 of their language arts teachers at a STEM middle school, what texts (books, movies, TV shows, and video games) qualify as science fiction? How do these students and teachers define science fiction? How might this shape their perception of science fiction?
To what extent is there a positive correlation between students’ enjoyment of science fiction and their interests in STEM classes and careers?
How popular is science fiction among students? Is science fiction often privileged in the language arts classroom? If not, why not?
In what ways could science fiction serve as a hook for engaging students in interdisciplinary studies?
I did find some promising results, but this topic will require more research, particularly since this was an explanatory study at a single location. I hope to conduct more research on this topic in the future.
