Creating Digital Sci-Fi Narratives through Multimodal Composing to Promote Adolescent Students' STEM Education

Area of Science:

• Science Education
• Digital Literacy
• STEM Learning

Background:

• Academic and scientific writing are common in science learning.
• Narrative and digital storytelling approaches are less explored.
• Connecting digital experiences with academic science learning is an emerging research area.

Purpose of the Study:

• Analyze science integration in multimodal sci-fi narratives.
• Examine how adolescents engage with science through digital storytelling.
• Evaluate student products from an integrated STEM and digital literacy program.

Main Methods:

• Developed a two-dimensional framework (science and integration).
• Analyzed 35 student-generated multimodal narratives.
• Utilized content and thematic analyses across 5 program iterations with 136 participants.

Main Results:

• Students employed diverse and sophisticated science integration mechanisms.
• Integration included connecting varied science topics.
• Narratives leveraged innovative techniques, addressed socio-scientific issues, and involved multimodal design.

Conclusions:

• Multimodal sci-fi narratives offer a rich platform for science integration.
• Adolescents can deeply engage with science through digital storytelling.
• The study highlights effective strategies for combining STEM and digital literacy.