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How can I tie in Star Trek XI with my high school Economics class?

Okay. Be careful and don't push him too far. You don't want to lose a "cool" teacher like that.

No, don't be ashamed of your interests. :)


BTW, it's not really college-level if you can get away with something like that in class :lol:
 
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I taught high school economics, though its been a few years since I've actually done so. I much prefer to teach history.

I have no problem with dedicating class time to movies, even movies that would require a few days in class. Though I probably found it easier to find the time since most of my classes met for 7 or 8 periods a week rather than the usual 5 periods of forty minutes. However, I would think that all of the movies I show had something to do with what was going on in class--such as a movie about Ancient Rome right after finishing Ancient Rome (which usually happened in the few days before Christmas) or one of the more logical WWII movies around the time we studied WWII. (I showed the episode of Band of Brothers where they found the concentration camp while the whole department showed the Boy with Striped Pajamas in the auditorium)

In my professional opinion, Star Trek has nothing to do with any part of high school or basic freshman economics. I can think of a half dozen ways to mention the movie (or pretty much any movie) as an example of a certain topic in economics. It doesn't show any of these concepts in the movie on any real level. For example, if I had a class that I knew like Stat Trek I might mention that restricting the supply of Stat Trek after Enterprise was canceled might increase the demand for a new movie. But no example of supply and demand, for instance, really deserves two hours of class time even during a bout of senioritis.
 
^^If you look at the more detailed breakdown of international box office of the ~US$128m a full ~US$35m or ~28% came from just one country the UK.

Australia did ~US$12.7m whilst Germany only managed ~US$12.8m so in a country with a population far smaller than Germany it did almost the same.

Was it marketing, or is some other factor at work.
 
^Yeah, a bunch of high school students would think about that while watching a movie. A few of them might, but not all.
 
I doubt any would thing about economics and box office takings by country and breakdown there of. I suspect the generally trend for US films after the US the UK is the next best market in terms of box office takings. Reason: Cultural similarities, same language (more or less)

People tend to gravitate towards the familiar, whilst if something is less familiar people can overlook it.

Do you normally see the same types of films at the cinema, watch the same types of shows on TV. Do you overlook films/shows because they are thing they are outside your comfort zone?
 
I'm sure The Green Mushroom would be able to come up with appropriate films for his economics classes.

I wouldn't know. I'm a science person. I'll be happy to have my students watch movies at end of an unit or as a reward once in a while. But I wouldn't let my students start up a party with a movie like that. I might have a lot to do. I might have had stayed up until 1am grading papers and preparing for class. The students may be behind.

I'm getting the impression that Spaceoddity doesn't go to a school like the ones I taught at.
 
At the risk of sounding snarky, when I read your OP, it seems your real motivation in this is to have a captive audience out of which you may create a Trek fan or two. Why bother? Stretch your mind, find something more appropriate for class, and save the soda and chips for watching the movie with some friends after school.

"Star Trek" as a general topic is ripe with academic possibilities in many subject areas. But there is no rationalization for specifically showing ST09 in an economics class based on its content. If you do come up with something (lines or a scene) in the movie indicative of an economic principle, please tell us what it was. As it is, you're actually asking us to do your work for you, by the way. And we're not even invited to the party. ;)
 
Plus the teacher could get in trouble for having the students watch a movie that isn't on an approved list. His superiors and some parents will not give a shit about the fact the students surprised him with the party. The teacher's responsible for what goes on in the classroom.

Remember, there is a scene of a shirtless Kirk making out with the Orion girl in the dorm....

When I showed Apollo 13, I had to skip the first few minutes where we saw Kevin Bacon's character use the beer bottle and glass to demonstrate how the mission capsule and lunar module would connect after entering orbit to his latest girl.
 
In my professional opinion, Star Trek has nothing to do with any part of high school or basic freshman economics.

Well that's true enough - analyzing the international box office of the Star Trek franchise seems more advanced than that level. But there's no harm in being ambitious.
 
In my professional opinion, Star Trek has nothing to do with any part of high school or basic freshman economics.

Well that's true enough - analyzing the international box office of the Star Trek franchise seems more advanced than that level. But there's no harm in being ambitious.
Temis, would it kill you to properly attribute your quotes?
thwack.gif
The board software is set up to automatically add the attribution and linkback at the click of a single button, yet with yours I'm always having to scroll back up the thread or onto the previous page to see who the heck you're responding to.
 
In my professional opinion, Star Trek has nothing to do with any part of high school or basic freshman economics.
Well that's true enough - analyzing the international box office of the Star Trek franchise seems more advanced than that level. But there's no harm in being ambitious.

Yes. But does that require investing two precious hours of class time watching the movie? I think that's the point. The OP is interested in any connections to economics within this particular movie, not the economics of the franchise or even this one movie outside of its content.
 
In my professional opinion, Star Trek has nothing to do with any part of high school or basic freshman economics.
Well that's true enough - analyzing the international box office of the Star Trek franchise seems more advanced than that level. But there's no harm in being ambitious.

Yes. But does that require investing two precious hours of class time watching the movie? I think that's the point. The OP is interested in any connections to economics within this particular movie, not the economics of the franchise or even this one movie outside of its content.


Took the words right out of my mouth. In the right situation anything can be used as an example for almost anything, but that doesn't mean I have to show a movie in order to mention it--even if I mention it as an example of everything.
 
In any case, the effective way to discuss a sub theme in a movie in the classroom situation is to play the one sequence several times over, interspersed with planned discussion and note-taking, rather than showing a whole two-hour film that only has a few minutes of vaguely-relevant content.

When I was a kid, we'd sometimes be shown a whole 90-minute documentary on natural disasters, when all we needed to see was a ten-minute sequence on volcanic eruptions. These days, as a teacher, I'd be more likely to show that ten-minute sequence four times in a lesson, giving the students the chance to practise note-taking skills, and synthesize the new information with knowledge they already possess.
 
we're watching the movie tomorrow

haha thanks guys. thankfully my teacher is a bit of a trekkie himself
 
In my professional opinion, Star Trek has nothing to do with any part of high school or basic freshman economics.
Well that's true enough - analyzing the international box office of the Star Trek franchise seems more advanced than that level. But there's no harm in being ambitious.

Yes. But does that require investing two precious hours of class time watching the movie? I think that's the point. The OP is interested in any connections to economics within this particular movie, not the economics of the franchise or even this one movie outside of its content.

Presumably movie content does have some relationship to their performance. If not, maybe the whole idea of watching a movie during class time should be re-thought. ;)
 
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