temi innovations: showmanship

Co-funded by

the Seventh Framework Programme

of the European Union

VIDEO CONFERENCE

SHOWMANSHIP

Marina Carpineti, UMIL

Marco Giliberti, UMIL

FP7-Science-in-Society-2012-1, Grant Agreement N. 321403

WHAT IS SHOWMANSHIP?

2FP7-Science-in-Society-2012-1, Grant Agreement N. 321403

Definitions (vocabulary, internet,…)

• The skill or ability of a showman• The ability to present something (especially theatrical shows)

in an attractive manner(often an ability that has been acquired by training)• It is generally though it means to be “flamboyant”, or “show

off”. • It is the art of making something look interesting and great.

ShowmanA person who presents or produces a show, especially of atheatrical nature.A person who is gifted in doing or presenting thingstheatrically or dramatically.



Definitions (vocabulary, internet,…)

• The ability of a showman• The ability to present something (especially theatrical shows)

in an attractive manner(often an ability that has been acquired by training)• It is generally though it means to be “flamboyant”, or “show

off”. • It is the art of making something look interesting and

great.

ShowmanA person who presents or produces a show, especially of atheatrical nature.A person who is gifted in doing or presenting thingstheatrically or dramatically.



A good showman has the ability to convey the attention

of the public on what he/she wants.



A good showman has the ability to convey the attention

of the public on what he/she wants.

but not necessarily on the most important thing

(ex: magicians).

A good showman in theatre is possibly a person that

leads the public to feel that what is happening on stage

is true, that the feelings acted by the showman are

real.



Showmen in google

Form is extremely important

WHY SHOWMANSHIP?


To create engagement: curiosity, interest, surprise

To fix in the memory: the power of images

SHOWMANSHIP IN TEACHING


In school showmanship should be associated to a

personal involvement in the subject.

Showmanship should not be only a formal attitude.

Teachers must be able to convey the students attention

towards the essential aspects.

Lessons must be: well organized, with changes of

rithm (dialogue, questions, experiments, fun,

blackboard…)



• Showmanship must not be confused with actor skills: it does not

always require particular theatrical devices, and teachers do not need

to be exuberant or mummers. But theatre has devised many

techniques to improve showmanship and master the art of

performance that can be used also by teachers to present more

effective lessons.

In a sense, teachers could think themselves as theatre directors of

their classroom activities. In fact showmanship requires a theatrical

grammar that is the awareness that:

1) Scientific message cannot be proposed only in a conceptual way;

2) Involvements and meanings come out also from emotional

engagement:

3) Particular care must be taken in focussing key-points and give

suggestions.



Scientific showmanship requires:

• To present meaningful things in terms of students’ experiences;

• To establish conceptual link that help to reduce cognitive difficulties;

• To give clear and concise instructions;

• To pay attention not only on what and with to begin but also on how;

• To take roles even different from that of the standard teachers and

make student take roles different from those of the standard students;

• The ability to create disciplinary discussion;

• The ability of enhancing exploration activities;

• The ability to listen to students’ questions without judging them.



• But sometimes also lights, darkness, music and silence can be used

in order to highlight experiments, or parts of them, or to give more

meaning to some key sentences and not lose students attention and

motivation, thus giving them more possibilities to grab new things.

• Whatever the personal teachers’ attitudes are, the ability to give

personal meaning to scientific topics and to put in evidence large and

connected landscapes through which students can move, is

unavoidable for getting a reliable scientific showmanship.

SHOWMANSHIP IN TEACHINGsome examples


Compression and expansion of gases

It can be presented through

explosion, fear, amazement, surprise…

http://youtu.be/IyvkBR6hlMg

http://youtu.be/IyvkBR6hlMg


…but also through a small action


2: http://youtu.be/jlLIP7wn76k

Slava Snowshow http://youtu.be/Mdjdd-g1R1k

http://youtu.be/jlLIP7wn76k

http://youtu.be/Mdjdd-g1R1k

WHY SHOWMANSHIP?


• In these examples we showed mysteries. People are emotionally

engaged in what is happening and at the end they ask themselves:

«why?»; «what is happening?»


• Showmanship can also help in creating

mental images of scientific concepts.

Vector summation.

You can easily figure it out with a

simple play:


Vectorial tug-of-war


linear propagation of light


In literature there are a lot of data showing that

often students have wrong ideas about physics.

Teachers can ask a critical question on the

expectations of students:

A ball is moving along the inner wall of

an open circle on a table, as in figure.

What will happen when the ball arrives

at the opening?

Misconceptions

http://youtu.be/uv8lzTW41yw

http://youtu.be/7pvR0FUCukw

http://youtu.be/uv8lzTW41yw

http://youtu.be/7pvR0FUCukw

How can teachers use

SHOWMANSHIP?

• How can they make their subject look interesting and great?

• How can teachers convey the studentsattention towards the essential aspectsof a scientific problem?

Various techniques: storytelling, introducing mysteries, performing a little show

Challenges

We cannot ask all the teachers to be actors.

There is also a warning: self-organized performances are often of bad

quality, not effective, ridiculous.

Theatre has its rules and it works only when they are all respected:

light, music, actors’ positions, accuracy of movements…

Not all the subjects that a teacher needs to explain can be easily

spectacularized.

We take the examples of clock reaction.

Let’s start from the video where the experiment alone is shown.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOR4kJy3P78

It is perfect. Only what is really important is shown.

If a teacher was able to do something of that quality is his/her classroomhe/she would obtain a perfect result.

BUT…

It is almost impossible.

In the classroom, or in the laboratory there are blackboards, tables,

objects that distract the attention.

Probably things would go wrong the first time, students would laugh.

And whenever everything works fine, it is possible that students

would move their eyes from the sample and lose the moment in

which the reaction takes place.

Impossible to convey the attention only on

the experiment

Students are in their usual mood. At theatre or

watching a video

it would probably be different

Things cannot be emphasized. No repetitions are

possible.

• Teachers have many possibilities:

• They can show a video. IMPORTANT: They can

choose either the first or the second onehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vl7qW8duDvM&feature=youtu.be

depending on their mood, on their nature, on the

classroom!

• They can bring their students to attend a scientific

theatre show.

• They can learn how to present in an effective way the

subjects, using the required theatrical grammar.

Whatever they choose, they first have to change their attitude towardsteaching.

They need to find out and develop a disciplinary landscape in which the students can move, with hills, rivers, valleys and islands. They need to addalso emotional aspects to what they teach.

Possibly for every theme they have to ask themselves:

« where can I find this phenomenon in my life?»; « why this phenomenon isimportant to me?»; «how is it connected with the rest of the landscape?»; «can I tell my students some personal anecdote?»

That is what we ask them to do in our TEMI labs

We ask teachers to pick up a fundamentalaspect of a problem and highlight it in a 2 minutes video that they will present us at the end of the course.

This approach can also enhance GRR with the students

Showmanship allows to introduce

scientific themes that can be read at

different levels


http://youtu.be/d31PTN6q-tQ

http://youtu.be/d31PTN6q-tQ

temi innovations: showmanship

Education

grant agreement

importantwhy showmanship

fact showmanship

school showmanship

power of images showmanship

good showman

theatrical shows

theatrical grammar