The use of mainstream movies in science courses has typically been to showcase good or bad science illustrated in those films.1–6 Indeed, many newer films use technical advisors to ensure that special effects and scenes are as correct as possible, science-wise. Educators have also found creative ways to examine other aspects of movies, such as historical and political contexts related to science.7–11
This article describes how the use of appropriate movies embedded within an interdisciplinary physics course can provide alternative opportunities for instruction that address (a) physics concepts, (b) the interconnectedness of science and society, and (c) the relation of science to students’ experiences. The movies and assessments discussed here are integrated within a course offering entitled The Impact of the Atomic Bomb, and are implemented to illustrate a variety of physics and science topics. The use of movies in this course takes an unusual approach—one in which the displayed scientific principles and their impacts are themselves the point of study. Ideas such as the scientific method, problem solving, technological principles, and social and cultural concerns are treated as the focal points emphasized by the instructor.
Course learning objectives and content
The course noted above was developed to satisfy the Social Impact of Science requirement of our general education curriculum, which includes a specific set of learning outcomes (LOs) that students should demonstrate by the end of the course. These LOs guided the development of assessments incorporated into the course and influenced which movies are viewed.12 According to the LOs, students will:
Understand the scientific principles and/or technological innovations relevant to the course,
Understand and acquire an awareness of the role that science/technology plays in their life, and
Demonstrate an awareness and appreciation for the impact of science/technology on contemporary society.
The course is organized along a historical timeline, from the discovery of X-rays by Roentgen in 1895, through the golden years of physics, into World War II and the Manhattan Project, through the Cold War and nuclear reactors, and finally into modern times with the development of medical technologies and the emphasis on environmental concerns. The course has been taught four times to approximately 80 junior and senior college students total, with little to no prior physics knowledge assumed. Enrolled students had a wide range of majors, including accounting, computer science, nursing, and music, as well as physics. The diversity of experiences that the students bring to the course provides a wide variety of perspectives and knowledge levels, making the class quite interesting and engaging to teach.
Movie selection criteria
Since movies would be used as an instructional tool, I needed to decide which ones would suit the goals and topics of the course. Table I lists the current suite of movies in use, as well as how each movie addresses the LOs. From my own experiences as an avid movie watcher (personal favorites, seeing reviews and trailers, doing research, etc.), I started with a rough list of candidate movies. Movies were filtered for inclusion (or not) in the course along the following lines:
Movie list for the course (in order of viewing), including short descriptions and topics that contribute to the scope of the course and the learning outcomes.
| Movie(s) . | Overall Topic . | Science . | Social Topics . | Miscellaneous . |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Madame Curie (1943) | Early discoveries of radiation, general science overview | Scientific method, lab safety, research process, radiation basics | Women in science, stereotypes, work–life balance | Important personal characteristics and traits, moment of discovery |
| Fat Man and Little Boy (1989) | Manhattan Project, bomb physics, US and German programs | Chain reaction, nuclear blast physics, reactor basics, biological effects, problem solving, patents, radiation safety | Moral dilemmas, politics vs. science, weaponization of science, openness of scientific discourse | Security, open discourse vs. compartmentalization, scale, engineering, famous scientists and historical physicists, Einstein letter |
| Thirteen Days (2000) | Cold War | Optics and surveillance, missile technology, sonar and radar, nuclear codes (football) | Red scare (communism vs. democracy), brinkmanship, military vs. civilian leadership | International politics, escalation, Cold War, textbook correlation, decision making, military doctrine, Atoms for Peace, the UN |
| Fail Safe and Dr. Strangelove (1964) | Cold War | Fallout, codes, aircraft operation, countermeasures, doomsday machine, surviving a nuclear war | MAD (mutually assured destruction), morality of nuclear war, psychological profiling, US vs. USSR, military–industrial complex, computers | Comparison and contrast, wargaming, proportional response, nuclear accidents |
| Threads (1984) | Nuclear winter, nuclear warfare | Effects of nuclear blast, fallout, radiation sickness, mutations, EMP (electromagnetic pulse), heat blast, blast effects | Civilization breakdown, government responsibilities, communication, food chain and supply, triage, mental health, survival, culture continuity | Escalation, doomsday clock, global effects |
| Radioactive Wolves (2011) (Documentary) | Environmental impacts, nuclear accidents, waste management | Biological effects, control vs. study groups, animal food chain (predators), radiation levels, isotopes, global radiation detection | Environmental impacts, governmental responsibilities, fallout areas and effects on other nations | Textbook correlations, Ukraine war (Chernobyl and Zaporizhya), Fukushima, and Three Mile Island comparisons |
| Wargames (1983) | Technology vs. humans | AI (artificial intelligence), reliance on technology vs. human factor, older computer technologies (modem, dot matrix, floppy disk, cassette tapes), game theory | Fatalism, generational responsibilities, morality of weaponization of technology | Wargaming, command and control, nuclear triad |
| Movie(s) . | Overall Topic . | Science . | Social Topics . | Miscellaneous . |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Madame Curie (1943) | Early discoveries of radiation, general science overview | Scientific method, lab safety, research process, radiation basics | Women in science, stereotypes, work–life balance | Important personal characteristics and traits, moment of discovery |
| Fat Man and Little Boy (1989) | Manhattan Project, bomb physics, US and German programs | Chain reaction, nuclear blast physics, reactor basics, biological effects, problem solving, patents, radiation safety | Moral dilemmas, politics vs. science, weaponization of science, openness of scientific discourse | Security, open discourse vs. compartmentalization, scale, engineering, famous scientists and historical physicists, Einstein letter |
| Thirteen Days (2000) | Cold War | Optics and surveillance, missile technology, sonar and radar, nuclear codes (football) | Red scare (communism vs. democracy), brinkmanship, military vs. civilian leadership | International politics, escalation, Cold War, textbook correlation, decision making, military doctrine, Atoms for Peace, the UN |
| Fail Safe and Dr. Strangelove (1964) | Cold War | Fallout, codes, aircraft operation, countermeasures, doomsday machine, surviving a nuclear war | MAD (mutually assured destruction), morality of nuclear war, psychological profiling, US vs. USSR, military–industrial complex, computers | Comparison and contrast, wargaming, proportional response, nuclear accidents |
| Threads (1984) | Nuclear winter, nuclear warfare | Effects of nuclear blast, fallout, radiation sickness, mutations, EMP (electromagnetic pulse), heat blast, blast effects | Civilization breakdown, government responsibilities, communication, food chain and supply, triage, mental health, survival, culture continuity | Escalation, doomsday clock, global effects |
| Radioactive Wolves (2011) (Documentary) | Environmental impacts, nuclear accidents, waste management | Biological effects, control vs. study groups, animal food chain (predators), radiation levels, isotopes, global radiation detection | Environmental impacts, governmental responsibilities, fallout areas and effects on other nations | Textbook correlations, Ukraine war (Chernobyl and Zaporizhya), Fukushima, and Three Mile Island comparisons |
| Wargames (1983) | Technology vs. humans | AI (artificial intelligence), reliance on technology vs. human factor, older computer technologies (modem, dot matrix, floppy disk, cassette tapes), game theory | Fatalism, generational responsibilities, morality of weaponization of technology | Wargaming, command and control, nuclear triad |
Subject matter
Each movie needed to contain aspects relevant to the subject matter currently being studied in the course. Thus, one movie covers the Manhattan Project, several are Cold War themed, one examines environmental issues, etc. The science I wanted to address had to be evident in the movies as well, had to be reasonably correct, and could not be too difficult for students to grasp. Since social connections would be explored, I looked for such topics interwoven into the overall fabric of the movie. Many were easy to define based on parallel historical events of the times; others were more difficult.
Lesson preparation
A critical analysis of the movies was performed by taking notes during viewing, for the eventual production of prompts and discussion questions. This process took some time and effort, but the prompts helped guide the students’ own critical analysis of the movies. Determining what aspects of the movies would encompass the teachable moments of the movie was also a part of this analysis—the more the better. As I found movies that better demonstrated the concepts, less useful ones would be rotated off of the list. Social connections were probably the most difficult for the students to identify, so additional discussions on this topic help to guide the students in that regard.
The movie viewing also needed to be staggered throughout the semester—a reasonable watching frequency for the students was determined to be one movie approximately every two weeks, to allow for instruction and discussions in between and after viewings. Aligning the historical structure of the course content to specific movies was a challenging puzzle.
Other movies that have been used in earlier offerings of the course include The China Syndrome (1979), The Sum of All Fears (2002), and Trinity and Beyond (1995). Many movies, such as The Day After (1983) and Broken Arrow (1996), did not make the cut due to content and duplication with other films.
Pedagogy of the movie assessments
The movies are meant to allow the students to learn about the various subject topics and their applications in an interesting way, as well as reflect on their own experiences and the interconnectedness of science and society. Students are provided with the opportunity to watch each movie through streaming services or library CD availability. It is the responsibility of each student to watch the movies on their own prior to the class discussion date, but students are encouraged to watch with friends or classmates as a weekday “movie night,” or at home with their family on weekends. Instruction and assessments are grouped into several categories described here:
How to watch the movie (prompts)
Much like studying a text or primary source or listening to a lecture, students are encouraged to take notes on the movies while watching them—this behavior is not something they are used to doing. They are provided with a set of 15+ discussion prompts for the movies ahead of time that direct them to some of the points of emphasis in the movie and promote taking notes.13 To prepare them for their movie viewing, I correlate topics of instruction in several classes prior to the film, and have various activities on some of the important science embedded in the movie: reviews of appropriate journal/magazine articles, games,14–16 and demonstrations (decay half-life experiment and Geiger counter usage). These activities allow them to correlate the science to their applications in the movies.
Class discussion
On day 2 of the course, I run a brainstorming session on discussions, and as a class, we come up with a “Rules of the Road for Classroom Discussions” that sets the tone and protocol for later class discussions. Students are reminded of these rules before each discussion, and a document is made available—lists from prior years end up being quite similar. After watching the movies, we dedicate one class period for a discussion of the prompts as well as a general review of the movie—its plot, themes, characters, etc. Students are given three index cards with their name on them, and a centralized bin in class where they are allowed to drop the cards if they are deemed to have made a contribution to the discussion. This activity allows me to collect the cards after class and, in effect, is a tally for a discussion participation grade. This process works out well as the students know to expect to talk, and it limits those students who might end up dominating the discussion if there was no restriction on their participation—three comments only, so make them count.
Essay and reflection
After the discussion, students have one week to write a 2- to 4-page essay on the movie that directly addresses the learning outcomes of the course. Each essay follows a basic four-section format (with students writing approximately one paragraph per section): a Summary section involving a generic review of the movie as well as any underlying “messages” the movie may be trying to tell; a Science section describing the science concepts demonstrated in the movie; a Social Issues section examining what societal connections may be prevalent in the movie and how the science relates to those issues; and, finally, a Personal Reflection section on how relevant the movie may be to the student’s individual life experiences. In addition, a fun prompt is included on whether the movie could be made today and what a prequel/sequel may look like (with appropriate modern-day casting). Each section is worth 25% of the essay grade, and there are general questions for all the movies as well as specific ones for each individual movie. This structure essentially presents the students with a straightforward rubric for the assignment, and makes the job of grading a little easier. Students have the rubric ahead of time and can address each section, knowing what to emphasize in their writing. The section on social issues is probably the most challenging for the students, although the prompts tend to guide them along.
Final survey
At semester end, a survey is given to the students in which they rank the movies as to their preferences. Results from this survey are used to further refine the list of movie offerings the next time the course is taught.
Reflections and concluding remarks
Some of the early challenges experienced in course development included poor movie selections; textbook selection, which has gone through several iterations [Richard Rhodes’s The Making of the Atomic Bomb and Arsenals of Folly (current text) to name a few]; recalibrating my assumptions regarding the initial knowledge base of the students (science background or not); and access to movie resources—make sure you talk with your librarian about licensing, copyright, and the fair use of movies in your classes, either streaming or using CDs; they will usually have some great ideas to support you.
The use of movies in any science course can be a welcome change from the usual lectures and labs. Indeed, taking small pedagogical risks in how you teach your physics courses can open up new ways of providing alternative instruction opportunities and assessments for your non-science major students, enhancing their experiences and literacy in the sciences. Hopefully, the ideas presented here can encourage you to think about using movies in new ways in your science and technology courses.
References
Kelly Krieble received his PhD in physics from Lehigh University and is currently an associate professor and department chair at Moravian University. His research interests include granular materials and physics pedagogy.