Biocinema: la experiencia de emplear películas comerciales con estudiantes de Biología

Abstract

Popular movies may be successfully used as a teaching aid in health sciences studies. In the last three years we have been using popular movies in an activity called Biocinema during the first trimester with students of fifth year of Biology at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra. The activity was planned to help the students to consider the social aspects of their future professional career. Six different films were used: Outbreak, Lorenzo's oil, The Boys from Brazil, Frankenstein, Le maladie de Sachs and The Andromeda strain. The activity was organized in three steps. First, students watched the film after a brief introduction by one of the teachers who were responsible for the activity. Second, this teacher organized an open discussion with the students during the next hour. Third, students wrote a brief report on one of the topics portrayed in the film or mentioned in the open discussion. These reports were further evaluated and contributed a maximum extrabonus of 0.5 points over 10 in the scoring of the regular topics covered in the trimester.