How the Television Show “MythBusters” Communicates the Scientific Method

Abstract

The importance of understanding and internalizing the scientific method can hardly be exaggerated. Unfortunately, it is all too common for high school—and even university—students to graduate with only a partial or oversimplified understanding of what the scientific method is and how to actually employ it. Help in remedying this situation may come from an unlikely source: television. One television show that is conspicuously good at communicating the scientific method in an easy-to-understand, pedantic-free, entertaining manner is the Discovery Channel's “MythBusters,” which began airing in 2003 and continues to produce new episodes. In this content analysis, episodes of the popular program were analyzed for aspects of the scientific method. In addition, segments from the show were used in a classroom activity to introduce the scientific method and the concept of experimental controls to high school physics students.