THE HAMMER OF GOD: DETECTIVE STORIES AND SCIENCE

In this paper, we present the interdisciplinary project "Elementary, dear Watson! Short Detective Stories and Science", an optional subject for the curriculum of 3rd year secondary school students in the IES Antoni Llido (Xabia, Alicante). The project started on the academic year 2018-2019 and resulted from the collaboration of the Spanish and Physics and Chemistry Departments. Our main objective was to improve our students' scientific and linguistic competences using mystery short stories and to evaluate whether this methodology was more motivational than those we used in the rest of the curriculum. The stories were chosen from a variety of authors, with the criterion that the key to solving the mystery should lie on the understanding of a scientific concept. We wanted to explore the subject out of the beaten track and this has been one of the most challenging things for us. That is the reason why we have chosen authors such us Asimov, Chesterton or Christie and literary detectives such as father Brown or Miss Marple. However, we may use a Sherlock Holmes story in the future.