Science-based discussions using imaginative stories as a

method of teaching in Urine microbial fuel cells

Zahra Pourreza-Movahed1, Mohamad Kabiri-Sedeh1 , Roghayeh Gavagsaz-Ghoachani1 , Matheepot Phattanasak2
1
Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran
2
King Mongkut’s University of Technology North Bangkok, Thailand

Abstract - Improving the quality of education is not effectiveness of various forms of entertainment for the
possible without the transformation of teaching methods and transmission of the message, and used poetry and stories and
techniques. Nowadays, the audience is always exposed to a wealth anecdotes to the teachings of subjects and concepts [2]. During
of different information, it is necessary to find a method for World War I, the United States Army has a contract with
learning them in the least amount of time. This is vital, especially
Warner Brothers to create a series of cartoon films called
in academic environments requiring extensive and complex
learning. The edutainment technique, despite its old age, is one of Private Snafu. These were funny cartoons that taught soldiers
the new concepts introduced today to simplify complex concepts. how to do their tasks, by sample what they should not do. In
A branch of this applied technique is the expression of concepts in fact, in the media world's time, it was discovered that even
a simple way by using graphic stories. In this research, a sample serious issues such as military training and war on soldiers
of modern scientific issues in a university level thought using could also be transferred into a state of entertainment. Later in
science-based discussions, fictional expressions and various images the 1960s and 70s, various museums around the world have
in the statistical society of 60 students of engineering and the tried to convey information to visitors in the form of
results of the project's effectiveness in various aspects of education entertainment. Also, the first computer games were also formed
have been studied. These results show an overall satisfaction of
at the same time, relying on concepts of Edutainment.
over 72% of the statistical population.
Index Terms - Urine microbial fuel cells, edutainment, learning, In some sources, they use the term Entertainment-Education
graphic story and distinguish between the two. The fundamental difference
between the two terms is the main goal in the Edutainment. The
essential point is that at Entertainment - Education is not the
I. INTRODUCTION main objective of teaching and it is merely entertainment that is
being developed during that education and concepts transferred.
In the past, man had a simple life and a limited interaction
If we want to have a media and TV example, we can name toon
with only a certain class of society. Education was limited to
channels and similar programs [3]. The main goal of these
literacy and learning one or more occupational skills. With the
programs is not the education and they cannot claim that precise
progress of mankind and the development of its needs,
goals have been formulated and documented in the background
education and skill achieved a wider range. What is certain is
of these programs and the producers of the program will all their
that in today's world education is not just for students, and all
efforts to transfer those educational purposes to the audience by
people in the community must have at least basic education in
entertainment tool [4]. In fact, these programs are entertaining
order to improve their quality of life. Education methods should
programs that try to convey concepts across the program; but
be promoted as well as education level and contribute to the
on the other hand, can name "60s" programs, such as the “work
development of talents according to the society of their
and plan” which explicitly pursued educational objectives
audience proportionate with their personality and learning
which was first introduced in 1969 in collaboration with two
norms. Another important point is that today we live in a world
intensive educational and media groups in the United States, in
rapidly evolving of technology and diversity of entertainment
a short time he went on to all parts of the world, and it's still
tools, so the earlier tedious methods are not effective today.
going on after about forty years. In Edutainment, the main goal
New education methods should have audiovisual attractions
is to transmit messages and education, and entertainment with
and convey concepts creatively and as quickly as possible to the
its various types as a tool for this education. The next point in
audience [1].
Edutainment is that entertainment should not just mean laughter
Edutainment has created this tool for educators to transfer many
and joy, meaning any entertainment is meant to attract and
of the concepts with high interest to the audience without
maintain maximum audience attention. Attention to the
boredom and mental fatigue. Edutainment is a new view of the
meaning of the word "entertainment" can also be interesting.
entertainment process. In addition to the recognition of this area
Entertainment means the combination of Enter, and Tain means
and the provision of definition and theory, this view is seeking
maintenance, and eventually Ment means a state. In this way,
to provide a solution for the educational use of entertainment.
it's generally possible that entertainment means attracting and
This view of education is entertaining, not contrariwise. That is
retaining the attention of the audience [5].
why originality and importance related to education.
Edutainment follows several general objectives: in the first
Edutainment or The use of entertainment for education is an old
stage, seeks to improve the audience's knowledge; in the next
concept and a modern word. Its archaism is as long as
stage, it wants to create appropriate attitudes in the audience and
humankind's history. That is since humankind discovered the
in the final stage, the promotion of the desired knowledge leads
to a change in the individual behavior or attitude. Edutainment
has good facilities for this process. The most important thing is
that we can take education time more than usual. In addition to
this, several serious threats to entertainment entail: the audience
crashes in the vortex of entertainment, which is so engaging in
entertainment that is just entertaining. This means integrating
information with entertainment, too much. The second threat is
media enterprises that are always in their best interest to benefit
from any situation. In short, the most important danger of this
area is to forget that the purpose is teaching, not entertainment.
Edutainments are two categories: media and environmental.
Media include computer games, films, animation,
documentary, television, and comic books. Environmental such
as group games, Board games, playgrounds, museums, and so
on. Each of these types has the ability to transfer a series of
messages to the audience. This message can be directed to the
audience, such as the zoo, or in the form of a narrative or story
to the audience, such as television animation [6].
As the theory of behaviorism states, learning is the creation of
a connection between stimuli and response in the human
nervous system. In the process of learning, it first affects the
status of the learner, then forces him to work. The more
stimulus can stimulate the senses of the human being, the more
effective the learner will be. The teacher, after determines the
subject and goals, should prepare activities to enable the learner
to properly stimulate and then achieve the main goal based on
them. In edutainment, the teacher uses a predetermined route by
classifying learning materials into smaller and more engaging
activities to stimulate the learner's senses in order to enhance
the understanding and sustainability of concepts during
training. As mentioned, one of the educational methods of
Edutainment, which has both speed and attractiveness in
conveying the concept, is the use of illustrated stories for this
purpose. According to Frei and Fisher, the graphic story helps
to develop analytical and critical thinking skills through
intellectual discussions that occur after reading [7]. Booth
emphasizes that using the graphic story, with the help of the
communication between the image and text in the classroom,
helps to facilitate new media to read and understand students
[8]. Crashing introduces the graphic story, so a successful
graphic story starts with a long storyline with words and
images, and it reinforces the story and insight that a text cannot
create its alone. A graphic story, along with words and images,
provides good reading experience; graphic stories are designed
so that the learner is not only read but also see. Gavigan
introduces graphic stories as a tool for understanding complex
learning materials that understand the concepts for learners by
reading text and images [9]. In Allen's study [10], graphic
stories are valuable resources that make student engagement
with the subject and better understanding [11, 12].
In general, the results of the research show that graphic stories
affect learning. For example, in the research, the impact of these
stories on different ways of learning and critical thinking was
studied, and the results confirmed the great impact of graphic
stories on learning [13].
This study relies on the theory of use and satisfaction in such a
way that the graphic story is able to convey the desired content
visually and with least words to the audience. The graphic story,
while doubling the impact of the topics, is also used by the
audience. If you use the graphical storyline alongside the
textbook, the audience will be more interested in learning
complex lessons and heavy concepts. Using this method while
fulfilling educational goals will also lead to satisfaction of the
audience.
In this study, a sample of the graphic story was first prepared
for a specialized topic using science-based discussions in a very
simple language and at the level of general understanding of
students from different disciplines. Then, in order to investigate
the effectiveness and level of understanding by the addressee,
in three different classes, including two classes of
undergraduate students and a master s classes, has been taught.
The results of using this educational method and its quality are
gathered both by student groups and by the corresponding
lecturer in a survey. At the end of the research, the audience's
suggestions for this plan are presented to improve the
methodology for later studies [14].
II. Methodology
A. Goal
Since the master's degree is a short term course and the subject
matter of the thesis covers a wide range of topics at this stage,
a targeted planning in order to get first-year students to be
familiar with this section seems necessary. This targeted
planning can create an overview of student issues at the
beginning of the course, and give students a sense of direction.
Then, the student is brought into the subject according to his
interest in the subject and, with a deeper examination in the field
of choice, take the first and most basic steps in the master's
degree course. In this regard, the plan was first introduced to
introduce new subjects of graduate students ' dissertations to
new freshman. To this end, a group of master students, using
the simplest methods, put forward their thesis topics in simple
terms. In addition to the introduction of new students with the
discussion in this period, the student who was carrying out the
thesis also helped to examine the different dimensions of the
subject and be familiar with the different views in its
expression. Also, by using the simplest tools and words,
understanding the subject for himself is also facilitated.
Subsequently, after the initial plans were prepared, these plans
were presented at the freshman Master's students classes. With
positive feedback that was received from these classes, it was
decided to use the prepared plans in order to train the most up -
to - date research conducted at the university. In this regard, this
study investigated this project in two groups of undergraduates
and a group of master students.
In this study, two main objectives have been investigated. The
first goal was to evaluate the effectiveness of the educational
plan in students learning and the second goal was to evaluate
the effectiveness of the plan in the teaching process of the
relevant faculty. For this purpose, after the implementation of
the project, the surveyed students and professors of the
statistical community have been surveyed and the results have
been presented. Descriptive statistics method was used to
evaluate the data of the questionnaire form. Descriptive
statistics is a set of methods that summarizes, classifies,
describes and interprets data. The purpose of the descriptive
statistics is to describe the existing facts. The only error in this
method is the measurement error due to human error. After
collecting the data, they are arranged, ranked and summed up.
For this purpose, the data setup and classification was
performed in a table called frequency table first and then, after
calculating the relative frequency based on the values of the
table, the charts of it are plotted. The relative frequency of each
data is obtained by dividing the frequency of each data into the
total number of data. If the relative frequency of data is
multiplied by 100, then the percentage of data is obtained.
B. Method
Learning involves the use of memory, motivation, and thinking.
In the learning process, information and emotions are first
obtained through sensory sources. If this information is not
immediately transmitted to the active memory, it will be lost. In
the training process, strategies should be adopted to allow
learners to prepare to receive learning content, so that learning
content is transferred from senses to sensory sources and then
into active memory. Therefore, in the learning process, tools
should be used that, in addition to appealing appearances, can
communicate with the audience and force the mind of the
audience to think in that subject to be in the long-term memory
of one person. In this regard, it is necessary to pay attention to
the individual differences of the audience in learning.
Additionally, there must be a great deal of effort to cover the
various dimensions of human needs, such as social needs,
physical and mental health, and the promotion of the audience,
in addition to learning the topic that is the main goal. Achieving
this goal will certainly require the participation of experts in
various fields in the learning process in order to educate the
audience appropriately.
The present research is an initial and primary sketch that is
attracting the attention of the audience and increasing their
focus on the topic of the subject through the use of apparent
attraction tools. In addition to the scientific side, it has used side
concepts to cover some of the basic needs of the audience.
C. Practical Case Study
The current project is the introduction and science-based
discussions of urine-powered microbial fuel cell, a new concept
in the field of energy supply tools. Microbial fuel cells (MFCs)
are systems that convert biomass directly into electricity
through the metabolic activity of microorganisms. In recent
years, the interest for this technology has rapidly increased,
since MFCs offer the advantage of simultaneous treatment of
wastewater and energy generation in the form of electricity.
Urine is an abundant waste product and it has already been
reported as an excellent fuel for generating electricity in MFCs.
In this case study, this new tool is gradually introduced by
depicting different atmospheric conditions and abandoning the
tools that require them to be used. In fact, in addition to the main
goal of being familiar with the new tool, the other tools are also
provided with a reference to their terms of use. In addition to
improving their knowledge in this field, the audience are
acquainted with off-grid energy production methods, which can
also measure their interest in research in this area.
As illustrated in Figure 1, this design attracts the attention of the
audience at the first glance by utilizing the imaginative storyline
and attractive animated images. The advancement of the stage
brings the story of the audience's curiosity. Additionally, the
text is short, which prevents the audience from being tired, and
at a slight time, carries out several general concepts in the mind
of the audience. In addition to the scientific aspect, this sketch
also includes the culture of the future. As illustrated in the
slides, the use of renewable energy in the long-term goals of
preventing global warming and environmental contamination is
clearly promoted.
D. Teaching methods
The current project is taught in two ways in a statistical society
of 60 students of engineering. In the first method, the
presentation of slides was done step-by-step and, using student
participation, each slide was analyzed and the next slide was
guessed. In fact, in this way, by illustrating the conditions
described in the sketch, the student tried to fully engage in the
given conditions and touch the challenge. After concentrating
and fully understanding the conditions, students are asked to
express their views on how to resolve the challenge at each
stage. In this way, by presenting comments from each student
and advancement in the story, a scientific discussion is
conducted and the topic is recorded in the student's mind.
In the second method, the entire project is presented
simultaneously to students. In this method, after having spent
the time necessary to study the sketch, students were asked to
express their views on the project and discuss it in different
ways. In this way, as before, the scientific discussion is carried
out and the scientific concept is recorded.
III. Results and discussion
The results of teaching the studied sketch were evaluated in two
sections, both from the viewpoint of the teacher and student
community.
According to a survey conducted by the corresponding
professor, the proposed project has been highly evaluated
against the traditional methods. Considering the appearance and
the abbreviation, while comprehensive, students are more likely
to learn and participate in class discussions. The vitality and
cheerfulness of the classroom have increased and no fatigue has
been observed until the end of the class hours. Students'
concentration during teaching and group discussion has
increased, and even after several sessions of teaching the
project, it was easy for students to remind them. In addition, the
student's motivation and interest has led to more research on the
topic and new designs presented by students with a variety of
creativity. In general, the teacher of the project considered both
teaching methods to be very useful and effective and
encouraged to continue teaching in this way.
In order to study the effectiveness of the educational plan in
student learning, a sample population has been surveyed and
polls have been analyzed in eight areas (Fig.2).
 Figure 1- Practical Case Study.
1. Appearance At first glance
The majority of students regard the apparent attraction as a
distinct difference in design compared to other methods. This
apparent charm is from a variety of aspects, including being
new, cartoonish, short, humorous, appealing shapes and
eagerness to continue the story. The result of the satisfaction of
this section was 96%.
2- Effectiveness in conveying the concept
According to poll results in this section, the use of pictorial
memory has been effective in applying creative forms and
images. Simplicity and conciseness of the content, the factor of
contact between the minds of the audience and raising his focus,
and his friendly and distinct expression in the transmission of
the concept, are useful. The result of satisfaction from this
sector was 87%.
3- Applicability for teaching
Since this method is a general explanation of a concept, a group
of students consider it to be very effective in teaching, since it
can be tedious to enter detail in any topic, but using this method,
the students fully examine that concept individually or
collectively after receiving generalizations. In fact, this method,
by attracting the audience at the beginning of teaching, creates
interest in them and encourages them to continue the topic.
Moreover, the study of various probabilities and the use of
empirical and palpable examples in teaching is very effective.
On the other hand, simple explanation and apparent
attractiveness have been considered as a reason for more
sustainability in mind and increasing the impact on the learning
process.
A group of students did not consider this method to be the main
method of teaching, and they believed that the method was
acceptable only for diversity and as an auxiliary method, and
continuous use could be tedious. The result of satisfaction from
this sector was 83%.
4. Get the overall concept at first glance
All students consider the project to be very clear, and they have
not mentioned any problem. The result of this section's
satisfaction was 100%.
5. Having scientific content
Since the purpose of this method is to provide an overview of
the audience, students did not adequately know the content of
science alone, but according to the teaching method, which
continued using team members' ideas, this method generally
has had an appropriate scientific content. The result of this
section's satisfaction was 72%.
6. Topics used
The survey results suggest that students find this method very
appropriate for expressing complex content in the form of
simple concepts and expressing the importance of the subject
and comparing it with similar cases. They have also described
this method as very effective in introducing new technologies
and identifying tools.
7. Advantages and disadvantages of this teaching method in
comparison with other teaching methods
The survey results in this section have been studied in four
general categories: social aspect, individual aspect, appearance
aspect, and learning aspect.
In the opinion of audiences, the learning section is the main
advantage of this approach. The use of cartoon images with
short and concise slides has simplified the concepts and
facilitated the learning and transmission of the message. On the
other hand, this method, with the use of pictorial memory, is
faster and better in recorded memory and results in better
retention of content. Simplifying this approach also understands
the content for everyone at every level of science and increases
the quality of learning.
The results of the survey show that the design used in this study
looks great in terms of appearance. The simplicity of the design
on the one hand, and being new and interesting on the other
hand, increases its attractiveness, and the narrative and
consequent expressions have stimulated the curiosity of the
audience.
Interacting with the person using the problems he understands
and creating a sense of need in the audience, makes the concept
understandable to him. Additionally, using creativity has
prevented student fatigue during the learning process.
Teaching the project was a group work that led to community
participation and team learning, and kept the classroom fresh in
addition to expressing the ideas of the students.
Surveys show that despite the high satisfaction of the method,
there are some disadvantages as well. Many have expressed a
low volume of content as a weakness in the plan and demand
more detail. Others have taught this method by using group
work as a time-consuming task and have suggested that the
method is not suitable for university courses.
8. Suggestions to improve the design
The use of animation and the addition of sound and video from
the suggestions offered to enhance appearance attraction. In the
scientific section, adding as much detail as possible to increase
the scientific burden has been stated.
IV. CONCLUSION
This research has provided a new way of teaching science-
based discussions based on the use of imaginative stories. The
purpose of this plan is to simplify complex content in the form
of simple concepts that are understandable to all individuals
Figure 2- Survey Results.
with any scientific level. In this regard, an illustrated story
designed to teach one of the new concepts in the field of energy
production has been taught in a community of 60 students of
engineering in two ways. Both methods have begun with the
narrative of the story through the illustrated story, and with the
participation of students and the use of their views, they have
continued to understand the concept fully. In the following, the
results of using this method of training and its usefulness, both
by the student groups and by the corresponding lecturer, are
gathered during the survey. The data collected in different
aspects are categorized into 8 groups and the strengths and
weaknesses of the method are investigated. The results of the
survey indicate the satisfaction of the relevant lecturer and
students, both of which have welcomed the project and have
been encouraged to continue.
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