Reframe: Using Pop Culture For Energy

I think something we need to consider when talking about science education is how it is framed for students in the classroom. Facts are often given in a vacuum: they come from a textbook with very little context and few connections to a student's world at large. But what if we brought what kids cared about into the classroom, engaged what they know with what we want to teach? I think that we can reframe the discussion on energy topics to include video game and other pop culture references, increasing student interest, and maybe even turn some of them into scientists in the process.

I want to start by giving an example of how to introduce several types of energy technology to kids with the Fallout video game series. The Fallout universe is one in which 50's era cold war mentality and atomic age technology were never abandoned, resulting in a future where cars are powered by nuclear reactors and vacuum tubes were the cornerstone of computer technology. Energy is of great importance in this universe, since the nuclear war which caused the game's post-apocalyptic setting was a result of a resource war brought on by the depletion of petroleum reserves. As the player works through the wasteland of what used to be the United States, he comes across a variety of things which can be used as a tie in to various energy technologies. For example, in the game Fallout: New Vegas, the player comes across a solar complex that uses concentrated sunlight on a central tower to generate energy. The climax of the game also takes place on the Hoover Dam, which given scarcity of resources in the game universe is a very valuable commodity.

By tying lessons about petroleum, nuclear energy, or natural resources to examples form the Fallout games, students become more involved with their own learning, using these visual examples to better understand more complex concepts. These examples can be used as a humorous introduction to nuclear topics, with pictures of the mutated inhabitants used to illustrate how the public views nuclear energy. They can also be used as an example of where the game got things right, and where they are exaggerating facts for fictional use. They can also be used as simply a way to connect with kids who are uninterested, a way of bringing in those who are on the fence about listening at all.

These are, of course, mature themes which need to be assessed by the teacher using them. But I believe that these examples can be used to generate more interest in learning, and even cause students to retain knowledge better. The more involved and engaged they become in the learning process, the better they are able to grasp the concepts important to the lesson.