UCF physicist says Hollywood movies hurt students' understanding of science

TheAnalystMagazine ^ | 8/07 | Zenaida Gonzalez Kotala

[LibWhacker]

It may be the height of the holiday season, but about a million people are about to get life-altering news. On Thursday, 300,000 school and college students will receive their A level results. A week later, another 700,000 will find out how they did in their GCSEs.

Movies such as Spiderman 2 and Speed generate excitement among audiences with their cool special effects. But they also defy the laws of physics, contributing to students’ ignorance about science.

Two University of Central Florida professors show just how poorly Hollywood writers and directors understand science in an article published in the German journal “Praxis der Naturwissenschaften Physik.” Common sense may indicate that people should know the stunts in movies are just make believe, but the professors say that’s not necessarily true.

Some people really do believe a bus traveling 70 mph can clear a 50-foot gap in a freeway, as depicted in the movie Speed. And, if that were realistic, a ramp would be needed to adjust the direction of motion to even try to make the leap, said UCF professor Costas J. Efthimiou, who co-authored the article.

“Students come here, and they don’t have any basic understanding of science,” he said. “Sure, people say everyone knows the movies are not real, but my experience is many of the students believe what they see on the screen.”

And that’s not just a UCF problem. Efthimiou said students across the United States seem to have the same challenge with science. It starts young.

The Science and Engineering Indicators 2006 report seems to support his observations. The report shows that the average science scores among 12th graders in the U.S. dropped from the previous year. The scores remained stagnant in the fourth and eighth grades. Worse, only about one-third of all students tested were proficient, meaning they had a solid understanding of what they should know.

If youngsters aren’t getting the basics at the elementary level, it becomes very difficult for them to continue to study the subjects in college and virtually impossible for them to make significant contributions to the scientific community, Efthimiou said.

Efthimiou began teaching a basic physics course at UCF in 2000. He described the experience as “horrible.” The students feared the subject matter and complained his class was too hard. Instead of continuing with the standard fare, he approached former UCF physics chair R.A. Llewellyn. Together, they came up with the movie approach now known as “Physics in Film.” They launched the course in the summer of 2002, and today it is among the most popular on campus.

“I needed a hook to get the students interested in science,” Efthimiou said. “I needed something to get them beyond this fear. Now it is one of the most popular classes.”

Efthimiou spends hours watching hundreds of films to find scenes that illustrate the physics concepts he needs to teach. For example, he uses a scene from Superman when the hero flies around the earth an in effort to reverse time and save Lois Lane from death. When students show up to class, they dissect the scenes and learn the real laws of physics. In the Superman example, he explains the real way angular momentum works.

“It’s a lot of work, but it is worth it,” he said. “It’s a way to get them science literate.”

Why would a veteran professor go through all of that trouble" Because he, like many scientists across the United States, is worried that if science and math education doesn’t improve, society will pay the price.

“All the luxuries we have today, the modern conveniences, are a result of the science research that went on in the ’60s during the space race,” Efthimiou said. “It didn’t just happen. It took people doing hard science to do it.”

The paper, “Hollywood Blockbusters: Unlimited Fun but Limited Science Literary,” is a direct product of the class he’s been teaching for five years. It’s loaded with physics, algebra and humor. But the message is clear. It’s time to get serious about science education.

Efthimiou, who has a doctorate from Cornell University, enjoys a good movie. But he said we should be as eager to get a good science education as we are to see the next big blockbuster.

[LibWhacker]

LOL. Road Runner cartoons so twisted my understanding of physics, it's a wonder I was ever able to free myself of those misconceptions. I mean, the obviously absurd things were obvious even to a seven-year-old. That's why they're funny. But there are a lot of little subtle things, too (to a 7-yr-old) that'll just about ruin you for ever studying physics. I really think that's why physics was so difficult for me, much harder than any math course I ever took. I did well in it, but it was brutal.

[Gunut]

Second, a lot of science fiction past, is now science fact present. Think Star Wars and present day robotics.

There's now a humanoid robot (developed by Honda) that can walk and even run!

http://world.honda.com/ASIMO/new/

[lilylangtree]

If anything, it should give students chances to think. Sci-fi is based on some science. Think about the Star Trek movie where Chekhov is on the USS Enterprise and is being chased by security. He falls and receives a concussion. Kirk and McCoy to the rescue. McCoy gives a mature woman a pill and she doesn’t need dialysis. McCoy puts an instrument on Chekhov’s forehead, and he recovers. I read later that the instrument was in the theoretical stages by scientists. But movies do make students think.

[ishabibble]

This week on Fox & Friends, the hosts interviewed Homer Hickum re the Utah mine disaster. Although he was on to talk authoritatively on mine safety, I could not help but remember his story, portrayed in the movie, October Sky.

Homer and his pals were high school science kids who got caught up in the romance of the “Space Race”. It’s a great movie about science and motivation, if you ever need to inspire some kids to go build rockets! God bless you, Homer!

[Billthedrill]

Ah, Flash Gordon, my favorite documentary. I don't wish to sound skeptical, but what were a bunch of people who were packing death-rays doing carrying those swords around and fist-fighting, anyway? That aside, I loved the 1980 movie version. Ornella Muti was hot. "Bring me the bore worms." W00t!

Where were we? Oh, yeah, physics...well, there is a certain willing suspension of disbelief. Take Star Trek - who is really going to believe that people can communicate with little flip-open thingies they keep in their pockets? Buncha malarkey...

[umgud]

Colleges need to quit teaching science in lib arts classes too.

[rbg81]

Ah, yes, the Roadrunner cartoons reinvented the laws of physics.

Actually, the beauty of science fiction is that it eventually becomes science fact. Imagining the future is the first step to making it real.

[LibWhacker]

Thanks. And good points in #7!... Kind of enjoy this “Analyst Magazine.” Just stumbled across it today. Definitely worth a bookmark and a monthly visit.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

I saw a peanut stand, heard a rubber band,
I saw a needle that winked its eye.
But I think I will have seen everything
When I see an elephant fly.

I saw a front porch swing, heard a diamond ring,
I saw a polka-dot railroad tie.
But I think I will have seen everything
when I see an elephant fly.

I seen a clothes horse, he r'ar up and buck
And they tell me that a man made a vegetable truck
I didn't see that, I only heard
But just to be sociable I'll take your word

I heard a fireside chat, I saw a baseball bat
And I just laughed till I thought I'd die
But I'd be done see'n about everything
when I see an elephant fly.

[I still care]

They recently had an interesting special on Hollywood and Science, I think on the discovery channel. It covered all kinds of things such as depicting people walking in hundred mile per hour winds and such.

My pet peeve? When I see a show where a person gets an IM injection in the crook of the arm. I just saw a show like that last night. People get shots in the buttocks, or the fleshy part of the arm, but not where you draw blood.

[The Great RJ]

It’s little wonder our kids have no understanding of true science. Most science teachers in primary and secondary schools have little science education themselves and even those teaching high school chemistry, math or physics frequently do not have those subjects as their college major. Couple that with textbooks that are full of errors and present pseudo science like global warming and ecological disaster as scientific fact and it is hardly surprising kids believe what they see on TV and in movies.

[dr_lew]

MISSION TO MARS had all kinds of lulus. For example, they abandon their space ship as it hurtles toward Mars and float over to another craft in Mars orbit, magically shedding tens of thousands of mph. This is the same thing as Bugs Bunny jumping out of an airplane as it’s about to crash, except it’s about 100 times as ridiculous in quantitative terms.

In DEEP IMPACT there’s an amazing shot of a rendezvous with the comet, showing the comet’s tail waving like a flag and glistening like hand soap. A real comet’s tail is millions or tens of millions of kilometers long, and would be invisible as you approach the nucleus. This image was just outrageously ridiculous, and it says a lot that the movie was considered to be “scientific”.

[Shooter 2.5]

A guy gets shot by a handgun and flies ten feet back. Another gets shot by a rifle and walks two feet FORWARD in order to fall off a second story balcony. Go figure.

Oliver Stone’s movie “JFK” did enormous damage to truth. It is a prime example of impossible ballistics and trajectories.

I think there was a Wesley Snipes movie where he was playing the regular action hero and he jumped off a building and landed on his feet. Even the reviewer caught that one.

Instead of wasting his time showing his class ridiculous movies based on fantasy, he should have showed them the movie “Jackass”. I heard there was a treasure trove of examples of Physics, Gravity and Propulsion.

[LibWhacker]

http://www.intuitor.com/moviephysics/mpmain.html

[fr_freak]

First, any rational person pursuing science should be able to parse fiction (movies) from reality.

Second, a lot of science fiction past, is now science fact present. Think Star Wars and present day robotics.

You are missing the point. This professor isn't talking about the kind of movie magic that shows humanoid robots running around, or spaceships with laser cannons - he's talking about the basic laws of physics being violated routinely in movies, affecting students ability to understand how things really work and simple laws of motion. The example he gave of the bus in Speed is perfect: if there were no incline on the ramp, the bus would immediately begin falling downward and would never clear the ramp, regardless of how fast it was going. People, though they say "yeah I know it's just fiction", still believe subconsciously that a vehicle traveling on a horizontal line (relative to the Earth) can gain altitude if the speed is high enough. I have seen this kind of thing in action in people, and when you try to explain why it is impossible, they give you the "you're an uncool nerd" look.

My first physics professor, when we were starting kinetics, gave us an initial test to see how much of reality we really understood. An example of a question was: If two identical balls traveling in perfect paralell rolled off of a table, one at 1 meter/second and the other at 2 meters/second, which one would hit the floor first? The correct answer, of course, was that they would still hit the floor at the same time, but what he wanted to know was if we actually visualized it that way, even if we didn't understand why. The point of the article is that movies are reinforcing false notions about how even simple things work.

[nmh]

This year I checked out a few other vendors to supplement with ... just PATHETIC Pearson Education ... RIDICULOUS.

NEVER purchase anything from these vendors at this website:

http://plgcatalog.pearson.com/co_home.cfm?site_id=2

No lie. Truly DUMBED DOWN stuff.

I’ll stick with BJW, Saxon and Abeka - REAL science is still taught there as well as REAL Math and PHONICS.

[nmh]

This year I checked out a few other vendors to supplement with ... just PATHETIC Pearson Education ... RIDICULOUS.

NEVER purchase anything from these vendors at this website:

http://plgcatalog.pearson.com/co_home.cfm?site_id=2

No lie. Truly DUMBED DOWN stuff.

One more thing I ordered the Phonics Level s from Pearson Education - no kidding my daughter already KNEW their third grade level stuff - she covered THAT IN FIRST GRADE with Saxon Phonics and Spelling. Her third grade Saxon Phonics and Spelling would probably be equivalent to their sixth grade - as best I could see. This is pathetic.

Our daughter is in a private school and we still feel compelled to SUPPLEMENT all the time. I swear, it’s not empty talk - public schools are DUMBING KIDS down and the PACE is slower than a turtle. The pace also concerns me ... it enables kids to be LAZY.

It’s really sad to see a little kid with all kinds of questions and slowly shut down and crammed full of junk science via crossword puzzles etc..

I’ll stick with BJW, Saxon and Abeka - REAL science is still taught there as well as REAL Math and PHONICS.

[ROP_RIP]

People, though they say "yeah I know it's just fiction", still believe subconsciously that a vehicle traveling on a horizontal line (relative to the Earth) can gain altitude if the speed is high enough. I have seen this kind of thing in action in people, and when you try to explain why it is impossible, they give you the "you're an uncool nerd" look.

Uncool nerds are well known for pointing out minor inconsistencies in movies and popular entertainment. Suffice to say this is not a way to win friends.

The speed of the bus does in fact matter since the distance it falls depends on how long it takes to jump the gap. It is unlikely to gain altitude without wings and a tail, but if it is traveling quickly enough it won't fall very far either.

[Shooter 2.5]

Take a rifle and a watermelon on a perfect horizonal plane and both are at same height. Fire the rifle and then drop the watermelon at the exact time the bullet leaves the barrel. The bullet and the watermelon would hit the ground at the same time.

If you were in a vacuum, you could substitute a feather for the watermelon. The feather and the bullet would hit the ground at the same time.

[rwilson99]

>>>You are missing the point.<<<

I understand their point. However their premise is flawed.

Star Wars depicted space ships traveling beyond light speed through asteroid belts. The generation of scientists inspired by Star Wars didn’t get confused... instead they managed to separate science fiction from what could potentially be science fact.

Honestly... would you want to send you kids to a school where the science professors determined that the typical student was too stupid to understand Physics 101.

Would we accept this logic from English teaches... students watching Scarface can’t possibly learn how to speak and properly?

What about history teachers...That Gladiator movie was so popular... we can’t never teach about Roman Civilization.

It’s largely a joke... defeatist and useless.