Citation

Hadzigeorgiou Y, Garganourakis V. Interchange: a quarterly review of education 2010; 41(4): 363-378.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2010)

DOI

10.1007/s10780-010-9136-x

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This paper reports on an action research project undertaken with the primary aim of investigating the extent to which situations that evoke a sense of wonder can promote scientific inquiry. Given the intense interest, curiosity, and wonder that some students had begun to develop after seeing the film "The Prestige", a science teacher used this film, which showed Tesla's demonstrations on the wireless transmission of electrical power, as a source of curiosity and wonder. The class that participated in this action research project was an 11th grade class in a rural area of southern Greece. Through an analysis of students' journals, observation, informal discussions, and paper-and-pencil tests, it was found that students (a) became involved with Tesla's life and work, thus developing an interest in current electricity; (b) learned about the skin effect, the biological effects of AC and DC currents; and (c) better understood Ohm's law in their attempt to find out the degree of damage or injury a certain measure of current can cause. Moreover, some students began to develop skepticism and open-mindedness, in addition to their sense of wonder. The paper also presents a planning framework for teaching the Tesla story.

Language: en