103-13 Rocks, fossil, and cinema: Popular films as tools for teaching geoscience

Session: Balancing Tradition and Innovation: Evolving Geoscience Curricula for a Changing World (Posters)

Presenting Author:

Author:

Abstract:

Movies are often an effective way to learn real facts, often presented through the lens of fiction. Many movies play to audience’s fears and include threats that have a basis in the functioning of geological and climatological systems. Additionally, some movies utilize geologic concepts either to advance the narrative plot of the film or to add to the spectacle. In the Geological Sciences Program within the Department of Biological Sciences at George Washington University, I am introducing a freshman-level course that will involve having students view several films that intersect with earth science topics and will use those films as a springboard to discuss those topics in more detail. The topics to be covered include natural disasters, tectonics and the structure of Earth’s interior, economic geology and energy resources, extraterrestrial geology, geological and evolutionary history, changing climates, and extreme weather. The major question that I want to explore with the students in this course is: what parts of these movies are totally fiction and which parts are based on reality? This course will also include a survey for students to take at the beginning and end of the semester to gauge the state of their previous knowledge, to determine if there are any common myths or misconceptions that occur and that should be addressed, and to see what kind of change in understanding can be achieved by using cinema as a learning tool. This survey will be composed of a series of Likert-like scale response questions in which respondents will be prompted to rate the accuracy of descriptions of phenomena related to Earth science that appear in the films used for the class. A modified version of this survey will also be available for attendees of GSA to take during the presentation with additional questions about education level and field of study. In this presentation, I hope to introduce the course that I have designed and comment on its progress but also to hear from other educators and geoscientists about their experiences with similar courses and to hear about movies and concepts that they would recommend.

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Program. Vol. 57, No. 6, 2025

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