Abstract:

According to recent international students survey, inquiry-based learning in science class has been highly recommended for efficient learning. Inquiry-based learning can engage students to reflect and communicate the knowledge in a personal way. Through inquiry-based learning, a student develops his/her own strategies for problem solving. In our research project we experimented how a creative type of problem-solving could support inquiry-based learning. Our basic focus had been on how creative problem-solving with visual elaboration can foster science class. First we analyzed active learning methods and successful scenarios from media didactics, including storytelling and moviemaking process. A framework consisting of grammar of storytelling and process of moviemaking had been set as an inquiry-based investigation project. With this, we designed a challenging scenario where students built teams of a virtual science TV broadcaster that had the mission to investigate on a given research work and communicate the results through movies. The framework also provided expert knowledge from science and movie technology. The resulting movies produced are comprehensive and are individually designed reflections on the research topic. During the project we evaluated the process by video-ethnographic methods. It revealed that students successfully developed problem-solving competency, coupled with conceptual knowledge and communication skills.

Keywords:

Inquiry-based learning, digital media in education, moviemaking, active learning.