Abstract
Does asking students to apply concepts from evolution to a fictional context, compared to a novel biological context, improve their understanding, exam performance or enjoyment of the material? Or does it harm their education by taking time away from true biology? At our institution, we sometimes ask students to apply life history theory to species from fictional movies, television shows or books. Previously, we had used a factual article on life history theory, to supplement our textbook. We wrote an alternative introduction to life history theory (included in the additional files for educational use), using Tolkien’s fictional species from his Lord of the Rings books. We also introduce the biological species definition, sexual selection, sexual dimorphism, kin selection, and the handicap principle, as those concepts arose naturally in the discussion of the fictional species. Life history theory predicts strong correlations between traits affecting reproduction, growth and survival, which are all shaped by the ecology of the species. Thus, we can teach life history theory by asking students to infer traits and aspects of the ecology of a fictional species that have never been described, based on the partial information included in the fictional sources. In a large, third year undergraduate evolution course at Arizona State University, we randomized 16 tutorial sections of a total of 264 students to either read our article on the life history theory of Lord of the Rings, or the factual article we had used previously in the course. We found that the exam performance on life history questions for the two groups were almost identical, except that fans of The Lord of the Rings who had read our article did better on the exam. Enjoyment, engagement and interest in life history theory was approximately a full point higher on a 5-point Likert scale for the students that had read the fictional article, and was highly statistically significantly different (T-test p < 0.001 for all questions). There was no difference between the two groups in their familiarity or enjoyment of The Lord of the Rings stories themselves. Reading the article that taught life history theory by applying it to the species of The Lord of the Rings neither helped nor harmed exam performance, but did significantly improve student enjoyment, engagement and interest in life history theory, and even improved exam scores in students who liked The Lord of the Rings. Using fiction to teach science may also help to engage non-traditional students, such as world-builders, outside of our institutions of education. By encouraging students to apply the scientific ideas to their favorite stories from their own cultures, we may be able to improve both inclusivity and education.
Highlights
Does asking students to apply concepts from evolution to a fictional context, compared to a novel biological context, improve their understanding, exam performance or enjoyment of the material? Or does it harm their education by taking time away from true biology? At our institution, we sometimes ask students to apply life history theory to species from fictional movies, television shows or books
We owe a debt to his son Christopher for collating, editing and publishing those notes that provide our only knowledge of Middle-Earth (Tolkien et al 1977; Tolkien and Tolkien 1996, 2010; Tolkien 2000)
The life history traits of a species are those characteristics that determine the organism’s likelihood of survival to a given age, and the number of offspring it typically produces at each age. These include traits like lifespan, growth rate, age of sexual maturity, frequency of reproduction, number of infants per birth, susceptibility to infection, body size, and traits that affect the ability to compete for mates and resources. These traits are shaped by the selective pressures of the ecology of a species, which often leads to correlations between different life history traits
Summary
Does asking students to apply concepts from evolution to a fictional context, compared to a novel biological context, improve their understanding, exam performance or enjoyment of the material? Or does it harm their education by taking time away from true biology? At our institution, we sometimes ask students to apply life history theory to species from fictional movies, television shows or books. In order to challenge students to generalize concepts to new contexts, teachers can borrow examples from nature that have not been previously covered in class It can be a powerful motivator and inspiration to apply ideas to examples from fantasy and science fiction that have already shown success in firing students’ imaginations (Bixler 2007), and to utilize the narratives of those stories to enhance education (Vrasidas et al 2015). The life history traits of a species are those characteristics that determine the organism’s likelihood of survival to a given age, and the number of offspring it typically produces at each age These include traits like lifespan, growth rate, age of sexual maturity, frequency of reproduction, number of infants per birth (e.g., twins), susceptibility to infection, body size, and traits that affect the ability to compete for mates and resources. Large organisms often live longer, delay reproduction and have fewer offspring than small organisms
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