{"id":70060,"date":"2023-09-30T18:18:01","date_gmt":"2023-09-30T22:18:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/world.edu\/?p=70060"},"modified":"2023-09-30T18:18:01","modified_gmt":"2023-09-30T22:18:01","slug":"sci-fi-books-are-rare-in-school-even-though-they-help-kids-better-understand-science","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/world.edu\/sci-fi-books-are-rare-in-school-even-though-they-help-kids-better-understand-science\/","title":{"rendered":"Sci-fi books are rare in school even though they help kids better understand science"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Science fiction can lead people\u00a0to be more cautious about the potential consequences of innovations<\/a>. It can help people\u00a0think critically about the ethics of science<\/a>. Researchers have also found that sci-fi serves as a\u00a0positive influence on how people view science<\/a>. Science fiction scholar\u00a0Istvan Csicsery-Ronay<\/a>\u00a0calls this \u201cscience-fictional habits of mind<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Scientists<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0engineers<\/a>\u00a0have reported that their childhood encounters with science fiction framed their thinking about the sciences. Thinking critically about science and technology is\u00a0an important part of education in STEM \u2013 or science, technology, engineering and mathematics<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Complicated content?<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Despite the potential benefits of an early introduction to science fiction,\u00a0my own research on science fiction for readers under age 12<\/a>\u00a0has revealed that librarians and teachers in elementary schools treat science fiction as a genre that works best for certain cases, like reluctant readers or kids who like what they called \u201cweird,\u201d \u201cfreaky\u201d or \u201cfunky\u201d books.<\/p>\n

Of the 59 elementary teachers and librarians whom I surveyed, almost a quarter of them identified themselves as science fiction fans, and nearly all of them expressed that science fiction is just as valuable as any other genre. Nevertheless, most of them indicated that while they recommend science fiction books to individual readers, they do not choose science fiction for activities or group readings.<\/p>\n

Why sci-fi books are scarce in schools<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Several respondents said that there simply are not as many science fiction books available for elementary school students. To investigate further, I\u00a0counted the number of science fiction books available<\/a>\u00a0in 10 randomly selected elementary school libraries from across the United States. Only 3% of the books in each library were science fiction. The rest of the books were: 49% nonfiction, 25% fantasy, 19% realistic fiction and 5% historical fiction. While historical fiction also seems to be in low supply, science fiction stands out as the smallest group.<\/p>\n

When I spoke to a small publisher and several authors, they confirmed that science fiction for young readers is not considered a profitable genre, and so those books are rarely acquired. Due to the perception that many young readers do not like science fiction, it is not written, published and distributed as often.<\/p>\n

With fewer books to choose from, the teachers and librarians said that they have difficulty finding options that are not too long and complicated for group readings. One explained: \u201cI have to appeal to broad ability levels in chapter book read-aloud selections. These books typically have to be shorter, with more simple plots.\u201d Another respondent explained that they believe \u201cthe kind of suppositions sci-fi is based on to be difficult for younger children to grasp. We do read some sci-fi in our middle grade book club.\u201d<\/p>\n

A question of maturity<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Waiting for students to get older before introducing them to science fiction is a fairly common approach.\u00a0Susan Fichtelberg<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 a longtime librarian \u2013 wrote a\u00a0guide to teen fantasy and science fiction<\/a>. In it, she recommends age 12 as the prime time to start. Other children\u2019s literature experts have speculated whether children under 12\u00a0have sufficient knowledge to comprehend science fiction<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Reading researchers agree that comprehending complex texts is\u00a0easier when the reader has more background knowledge<\/a>. Yet, when I read some science fiction picture books with elementary school students, none of the children struggled to understand the stories. The most active child in my study often used his knowledge of \u201cStar Wars\u201d to interpret the books. While background knowledge can mean children\u2019s knowledge of science, it also includes exposure to a genre. The more a reader is exposed to science fiction stories, the\u00a0better they understand how to read them<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A matter of choice<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Science fiction does not need to include detailed science or outlandish premises to offer valuable ideas. Simple picture books like\u00a0\u201cFarm Fresh Cats\u201d by Scott Santoro<\/a>\u00a0rely on familiar ideas like farms and cats to help readers reconsider what is familiar and what is alien.\u00a0\u201cThe Barnabus Project\u201d by the Fan Brothers<\/a>\u00a0is both a simple escape adventure story and a story about the ethics of genetic experimentation on animals.<\/p>\n

The good news is that elementary school students are choosing science fiction regardless of what adults might think they can or cannot understand. I found that the science fiction books in those 10 elementary school libraries were checked out at a higher rate per book than all of the other genres. Science fiction had 1-2 more checkouts per book, on average, than the other genres.<\/p>\n

Using the lending data from these libraries, I built a statistical model that predicted that it is 58% more likely for one of the science fiction books to be checked out in these libraries than one of the fantasy books. The model predicted that a science fiction book is over twice as likely to be checked out than books in any of the other genres. In other words, since the children did not have nearly as many science fiction books to choose from, their readership was\u00a0heavily concentrated on a few titles<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Children may discover science fiction on their own, but adults can do more to normalize the genre and provide opportunities for whole classes to become familiar with it. Encouraging children to explore science fiction may not guarantee science careers, but children deserve to learn from science fiction to help them navigate their increasingly high-tech world.<\/p>\n

Author Bio:<\/strong> Emily Midkiff is Assistant Professor of Teaching, Leadership, and Professional Practice at the University of North Dakota<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Science fiction can lead people\u00a0to be more cautious about the potential consequences of innovations. It can help people\u00a0think critically about the ethics of science. Researchers have also found that sci-fi serves as a\u00a0positive influence on how people view science. Science fiction scholar\u00a0Istvan Csicsery-Ronay\u00a0calls this \u201cscience-fictional habits of mind.\u201d Scientists\u00a0and\u00a0engineers\u00a0have reported that their childhood encounters with […]\n… learn more→<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15645],"tags":[434641],"coauthors":[11733],"class_list":["post-70060","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-education","tag-sci-fi-books"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nSci-fi books are rare in school even though they help kids better understand science - World leading higher education information and services<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/world.edu\/sci-fi-books-are-rare-in-school-even-though-they-help-kids-better-understand-science\/\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sci-fi books are rare in school even though they help kids better understand science - World leading higher education information and services\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Science fiction can lead people\u00a0to be more cautious about the potential consequences of innovations. It can help people\u00a0think critically about the ethics of science. Researchers have also found that sci-fi serves as a\u00a0positive influence on how people view science. 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