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Acting…like a scientist
By Nicholas J. Johnson
Originally publish in LabTalk Magazine
When I was in Year 8, I was demoted from the top level science class
to the class below. A new student had arrived at my school with an
incredible scientific pedigree. Both of her parents were respected
academics, she’d received nothing but straight A’s at her previous
school and somebody had to leave the already full class to make way.
That person was me.
You are probably thinking that the reason for my sudden relegation was
my poor grades or my terrible behaviour. However, as a solid B student
with a penchant for apple polishing, I could not understand why it was
me that belonged in the second tier class. My teacher took me aside and
explained it to me. “We decided that you would be least affected by the move.” She said, shifting from foot to foot. “After all, your more likely to pursue a career in drama…not science.”
At the tender age of 14, my science teacher was able to chart my future
career path and extricate me from the world of science, plonking me
firmly in the performing arts. Not only that, but she also reinforced
in my mind the idea that science and drama are separate disciplines
that do not, and should not, mix.
15 years later, I think my science teacher would be confused by my
chosen vocation. I have made a career for myself in drama...and
science. As a performing artist, I travel Victoria presenting a show
called Bad Science in which I use every theatrical skill in the book
from drama and comedy to magic and even escapology to help students
understand how science can be manipulated and misused. I perform a
classic Snake Oil Sales Pitch, with several students and one poor
teacher as my guinea pigs, in order to highlight how advertisers misuse
the scientific method to sell products. I recreate the famous fakir
stunt of lying on a bed of nails to show how weight distribution works
and how science can often be confused with the supernatural. I even
perform a frontal lobotomy on myself to help students understand the
structure of the human skull and how charlatan doctors fake surgery!
To my relief, the students react. They laugh and cheer at their
victories, they argue when they disagree and, most satisfying of all,
they question their previous assumptions about science and scientific
facts. Performances of this type bring the science to life for the
students. It places it in a framework that is relevant, interesting and
easily accessible.
This is not to
suggest that science is some sort of bitter pill that must be wrapped
up in drama and action in order for students to swallow it. The goal of
these performances is not to trick students into enjoying learning
science. Science is already interesting and enjoyable. However, what
theatre and live performance bring to science is a sense of immediacy
and familiarity that straight theory and even practical experimentation
often lack.
In the show, Bad Science, there is one particular scientific ‘fact’ that almost all students are familiar with. Most students believe that when they flush a toilet in the northern hemisphere, the Coriolis effect causes the water to go down the drain clockwise. When they flush a toilet in the southern hemisphere, the water turns anticlockwise. This is, of course, not true. The Coriolis effect only affects large bodies of water over extended periods of time. However, this scientific myth has been cemented in the minds of a generation of students because of its inclusion in ‘The Simpsons’. In the episode ‘Bart Vs. Australia’, the toilet flushing myth is not only explained, it is recreated, dramatised, parodied and used as a vital plot point. The suspect science is so well explained and brought to life over the episode that sometimes, even after the truth has been explained to students, they will continue to argue because they “saw it on TV”. Viewers of the episode make an emotional attachment to the science.
In the end, my teacher was wrong. Drama and science are not two
separate disciplines. They not only complement each other but share the
same basic goal. Performance is an art form and the role of all good
art, like good science, is not just to change the way in which people
think and feel but to change the way in which the observe the world
around them. Just as scientific innovation changes our perception of
world, a great movie or a thought provoking play will adjust an
audience’s world view in the same way. The creativity and emotional
timbre of art is the perfect catalyst for igniting the curiosity and
exhilaration that makes great scientists and science students.
Even if we don’t get straight As.
Nicholas J. Johnson is a professional entertainer and educator. His show, Bad Science, tours schools in Victoria.
Pantidos, Panagiotis 2001, ‘The Use of Drama in Science Education: The Case of "Blegdamsvej Faust’, Science and Education, v10 n1-2 p107-17 Jan-Mar 2001
Tobin, Eugene 1998, ‘The Art of Science Education’, Hamilton Alumni Review, Summer 1998.
