Effective Use of Audiovisual Curricula to Teach Science
The educational strengths of audiovisual programs include engagement, effectiveness, efficiency, and versatility. They can be used in the classroom, in an after-school program, at home over the internet, or on an iPod or similar hand-held device, and, being digital, are available to any student in the world through the internet, even to students in remote areas of the world. This is especially appealing in regions where teacher expertise is lacking, because the attached audio files do much of the teaching.
The PowerPoint presentations are designed to be viewed in the classroom, or individually during or after school hours. The illustrations are kept simple to prevent students from being overwhelmed or distracted. By attaching explanatory audio files to each picture, the slides leave no room for misinterpretation. PowerPoint is versatile: a teacher using PowerPoint in the classroom can focus the entire class’ attention, while an individual student using PowerPoint can view, or review, the lessons at his or her own pace.
Each curriculum begins with the assumption that students have no understanding of subject being presented. For this reason, the chemistry curriculum can readily be introduced to 6th or 7th graders. Each new topic is never presented as an isolated collection of facts. Instead, topics are introduced with an everyday observation or commonly known fact followed by the question, “Why does that happen?” By asking the “clinically relevant” question first, students know exactly how to use the information they are learning.
The material is then presented in small increments prompted by engaging questions. The answer to one question leads to the next fact followed by another question, and so on. By presenting the material like this, one step at a time, by making each fact flow logically from the fact preceding it, chemistry and biology begin to make sense, because the facts tell a story instead of being simply a collection of unrelated facts. Scientific knowledge has to be assembled bit by bit, beginning with a few facts and adding additional ones to a student’s growing body of knowledge. Scientific knowledge cannot be assembled from a large collection of disconnected facts. Moreover, each additional bit of information has to make sense so that it can be connected to what the student already knows. Learning facts by themselves, without relating them to prior knowledge, is simply memorization. Throughout the lessons, a conscious effort is made to de-emphasize memorization of terminology in favor of understanding the underlying principles.
Very early on, students are given a road map of the curriculum, so they understand why they are learning each topic and where each topic fits into the overall picture. Students need a road map so they understand of where they are going and what their current position is on the road map, so that if they do have trouble with a particular topic, they can isolate the problem area without losing sight of the entire subject.
The way to get science to make sense is to tell a story. For chemistry, the storyline is that everything is made up of atoms; there are about a hundred of them, all organized in a chart called the periodic table; atoms bond to each to make molecules that have properties completely unrelated to the atoms that formed the molecule; there are only four ways for atoms to bond to each other and each particular bond determines the properties of the molecule formed.
For biology, the road map is what does it take for something to be considered alive? The lessons are therefore centered on the cell membrane, the way cells take in nutrients and energy, the way they grow and reproduce, the way they maintain their internal balance (homeostasis), and the way they adapt to long-term changes in the environment.
Telling a story in a methodical stepwise fashion and showing how each new slice fits into what was just taught allows the brain to efficiently lay down new memories into long-term storage. Presenting too much material too fast, failing to relate the new material to previous material, and filling pages of textbooks with flashy charts, graphs, bold text, questions, pictures, and sidebars rapidly overloads the ability of the brain to lay down new memories. The neurologic reason for this is the following.
While long-term memory has a virtually unlimited storage capacity, working memory can readily be overloaded by too much information presented too fast. Distractions, in particular, can readily overwhelm working memory and displace what really needs to be learned. To facilitate a smooth transition from working memory into long-term storage, new information must be divided into small segments, and offered in a steady, logical stream without distractions.
The actual storage of long-term memories takes place in multiple areas of the brain simultaneously, corresponding to the sensory organ used to receive the memory. This is why multi-modal teaching using reading, listening, vision, and touch is so effective: students are able to retrieve those memories more readily when they’re stored at multiple locations in the brain. According to a 2008 report commissioned by Cisco Systems, entitled Multi-modal Learning through Media: What the Research Says, “Multi-modal learning has been shown to be more effective than traditional, unimodal learning. Adding visuals to verbal (text and/or auditory) learning can result in significant gains in basic and higher-order learning.” Jay Diskey, executive director of the school division of the Association of American Publishers, recently indicated this his companies are moving into “Websites, podcasts, electronic book, software, courseware, online tutoring tips, educations games, video products, and many other ways to learn.”
Considerable emphasis needs to be placed on scientific logic and hypothesis testing, particularly on issues of causation. The brain’s natural inclination is to assume that if B follows A, B must have been caused by A. Students are taught to conjure up other possible causes of B besides A, and then to test each hypothesis by thinking of testable predictions for each hypothesis and then designing an experiment to confirm their predictions.
Tests are administered at the end of nearly every lesson, with answers provided after each question. Many of the test questions offer students an opportunity to apply what they’ve learned in novel and challenging situations. Frequent tests help motivate students to pay attention to the PowerPoint lessons, and immediate answers to the test questions correct any misconceptions the students may have. Immediate answers also reassure students that they are mastering the subject, which boosts their self confidence. And, of course, tests after each lesson alert the teacher to any student on the verge of falling behind.
Audiovisual-based teaching is much faster than text-based learning, because a picture is worth a thousand words, and with audio files explaining the images, students can move through the basic principles of chemistry and biology quickly and begin using those principles in real life situations. It is essential to “hook” students on science by providing them with opportunities to apply what they’ve learned to new and interesting problems. It’s fun, it’s exciting, and it gives students confidence in their own abilities. More importantly, solving problems makes students realize that what they’re learning has practical use so that someday they’re going to look at something and say, “Wait a minute, I can do that better.”
Ideally, the biology lessons will be presented after students have viewed the chemistry curriculum.
Cisco (2008). Retrieved from www.cisco.com/web/strategy/docs/education/multi-modal-learning-through-media.pdf, Washington Post Jay Mathews December 15, 2008, p. 82
