Abstract:

The motive of a science class is to impart knowledge on various phenomena, to engage students to reciprocate and reflect on what they have learned and to make them develop an inquiring mind. Various media such as books, images, videos, etc. are widely used as tools in science class for presenting phenomena and facts. Media is also used as a means of developing the cognitive ability of the users; by making them develop their own media that directs their attention to the science facts. Therefore, media plays a very vital role in science classes today, and we have to look deeper into the potential of digital moviemaking and the role of visual representation. Science classes already use diverse visual representations like diagrams, maps, pictures, graphs, animations and movie sequences. For visual understanding and communication, students have to learn and develop their visual language skills. Storyboards are one of the most powerful media through which students can develop their visual language skills. They are used as a visual tool in movie making, for presenting facts in an organized way and complex information can be transferred in a feasible way, through visual representation using the storyboards.
Based on recherché and creative imagination movie production starts with the development of the story, after deciding on the topic, location, time and characters. The backbone of movies is the story structure. Narrating a story is the process of connecting events and actions together in a meaningful way. The models of story structures are diverse, because different disciplines like literature, anthropology, psychology, semiotic and film studies have different points of views on the storytelling. The theory of Greimas on narrative structures has been useful for the authors to understand the cognitive activities, needed to translate individual observations and knowledge into stories by using storyboards. Drawing storyboards can be turned into a cognitive activity that evokes the motivation to refine an idea, untill it becomes communicable. In several case studies, students formed teams of virtual broadcasters that explored a topic from natural science in the context of a research lab. The teams were given the task of handling a specific topic and documenting their results in a movie that communicated the facts to their classmates in an entertaining way. This specific setting reflects several didactic methods, especially Learning by Teaching (LdL). This paper identifies the potential of a project setting that combines creative inquiry with digital moviemaking including their visual tools in a science lab. The potential, by stimulating the imagination of the students and transforming it into creativity, is one of the most efficient ways for inquiry-based approach that motivates engagement in science classes.

Keywords:

Visual Literacy, Storytelling, Storyboarding, Media-based Science Learning, Movie Making