"The Martian" or Other Movie 21st Century Skills Activity

"The Martian" or Other Movie 21st Century Skills Activity

So, let me ask you the question: How often do we let students “work the problem” in our schools and classrooms?

 Do we give students a chance to figure it out on their own or in a small group? Do we challenge them to solve a challenge in a fixed amount of time? Do we let them struggle and fail to the point where they have to work the problem and find a solution?

With PL - Now every student was “working their own problem” and stumbling, struggling, and fighting to find a solution of how to learn, make, create, and launch an idea out into the world.

“The Martian” is a great example of working the problem.  He has to use a multitude of 21^st Century Skills, along with his team, and the people back on Earth to work together to survive and get him home.

This activity could also work with a number of other survival movies, if you do not have access to The Martian.  When using a movie without a G rating, be sure you have permission from your students’ parents or guardians for them to watch it.  You could watch the entire movie, or you could just watch clips.  Some possible titles are (really any survival type movie would work well):

·       The Martian

·       Cast Away

·       Alive

·       127 Hours

·       Blackhawk Down

·       13 Hours

·       Zero Dark Thirty

See the full activity here: