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Kim Johnson reportingDuring these final days of school a lot of teachers use movies to underscore what they've taught during the year.
We thought it would be interesting to find out your students have been shown this year, and what they think about movies at school. So we asked some high schoolers to do a very UN-Scienfific survey. The results provide interesting food for thought.
Michelle Amiot's physics class is watching Apollo 13. She says the space drama not only has historical relevance, but depicts scientific concepts she's taught all year long.
Michelle Amiot/ Physics teacher, Olympus High School: "As it's going, I interrupt the movie a lot to point out right there they're talking about this. What happens is pressure, when the thing explodes and things like that, so it applies."
But Amiot says using movies as teaching tools can be tricky, even misused.
Michelle Amiot/ Physics teacher, Olympus High: "It can apply. You have to be creative, patient, and picky about the movies. Just throwing a video in just to take up time I think is totally wrong."
We asked student reporters from five different Utah hgh schools to each ask ten of their peers about the movies they've seen during school this year. Here's what they found.
The student reporters from Timpview, Juab, Murray, Riverton and Bingham High schools gathered 40 responses in which their peers collectively reported seeing 93 different movies this year.
The top ten included October Sky, Flubber, Death of a Salesman, The Great Gatsby, The Crucible, Remember the Titans, Newsies, Much Ado About Nothing, Jurassic Park and A Beautiful Mind.
Nick Parker is the editor in chief for his high school newspaper, and helped in our unscientific survey. Parker says most of the students he talked to feel as he does, that movies can be helpful.
Nicholas Parker/ Student, Murray High School: "As long as it's something that can at least loosely tie to the curriculum. If it's something like Monty Python and Holy Grail and they're studying history, it would be good to show the comparisons and contrasts of real history as opposed to cinema history."
But Parker says he was surprised at the number of kids who frown at movies during class time.
Nicholas Parker/ Murray High: "Most kids I thought would be interested in seeing movies in class just so they wouldn't have to work. But a few said they didn't like wasting their time in class and would rather be learning something relevant."
Food for thought for parents, students and educators.
The high school students who helped us, write for the "Pulse" feature in the Deseret Morning News. More about what they learned in tomorrow's edition.
