Detailed Documentary Review: An Approach to Enhance Students’ Cognitive Skills and Raise the Awareness of Saving the Planet

This study proposes the application of detailed documentary review assignment as a comprehensive teaching and learning approach to elevate students’ interests on the knowledge been taught. This method needs the students to perform in-depth research upon the specific documentary, whereby this allows the students acquire vast knowledge that is not limited to only from the documentary and lectures. Such approach has been implemented on several batches of Year 1 Geoscience students in Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS (UTP) via using a documentary film entitled “Mass Extinction: Life at the Brink”. The primary focuses of this endeavor by using the specific documentary are to teach the students on the significant workflows and terms used in research methodology whilst conducting the assignment and nurture the awareness among them upon the importance of saving the planet Earth. Students’ performance on this assignment was evaluated through their final slides presentation in groups. The outcomes have shown that such teaching approach have positively impacted the students’ learning and cognitive skills in a way it helps to sharpen up the students’ critical thinking ability by providing plausible solutions for saving the Earth and students were able to properly grasp the essential processes used research methodology in which this component is crucial for their future studies application.