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An Inquiry-Based Strategy: Using Film to Teach Geography shows how film can become a powerful instructional tool for geographic inquiry in classrooms. While teachers have long used Hollywood and commercial media to spark student interest, this edited collection offers a clearer path for using film purposefully, critically, and in alignment with the C3 Framework and state standards.
Seventeen classroom-ready chapters demonstrate how carefully selected films and film clips can help students investigate essential geographic questions, and provide practical lessons that explore spatial thinking through geospatial tools and cinematic representations. Lessons address place with a focus on human-populations patterns including migration, settlement, and cultural diffusions. Other lessons address human-environment interaction from resource use to environmental change. Global interconnection lessons cover trade, culture, and shared environmental challenges.
The collection spans U.S. regions, climate, natural hazards, sustainability, and global issues such as fast fashion, plastic pollution, and water scarcity. The book demonstrates how film can anchor inquiry, deepen understanding, and connect classroom learning to real-world problems.
Designed for educators seeking meaningful, inquiry-driven instruction, this book bridges theory and practice, offering adaptable tools that help young learners see geography as a dynamic lens for understanding an interconnected world.
Nancy B. Sardone Ph.D. is Professor of Education at Georgian Court University, Lakewood, New Jersey.
Introduction to Hollywood or History? Geography Edition; Nancy B. Sardone
SECTION I. THE WORLD IN SPATIAL TERMS
Chapter 1. Bullseye: Developing Geographic Knowledge and Skills; Nancy B. Sardone
Chapter 2. Lights, Camera, America!: Exploring U.S. States and Regions; Sam Goldsmith
Chapter 3. Breathtakingly BRAVE; Nancy B. Sardone
SECTION II. PLACES AND REGIONS
Chapter 4. Let it Snow, Let it Shine: Exploring Climate; Nancy B. Sardone
Chapter 5. Floating into a “Lost” World; Nancy B. Sardone
SECTION III. PHYSICAL TERMS
Chapter 6. I Feel the Earth Move Under My Feet; Nancy B. Sardone
Chapter 7. Standing on Shaky Ground; Nancy B. Sardone
Chapter 8. Let’s Do the Twist; Brianna Scatorchia
Chapter 9. Stonehenge Rocks!; Nancy B. Sardone
SECTION IV. HUMAN SYSTEMS
Chapter 10. Too Much Garbage in Your Face? There’s Plenty of Space in Space!; Alex Honold
Chapter 11. Fast Fashion: What are the Human and Environmental Costs; Jing A. Williams and Bárbara C. Cruz
Chapter 12. Keep the Sea Plastic-Free: A Global Problem Needing Many Solutions; Nancy B. Sardone
Chapter 13. H2Ohhh! Our Precious Water; Nancy B. Sardone
Chapter 14. Opening Pandora’s Box: Using Avatar Film Clips to Teach Human Environment Interaction through an Indigenous Lens; Christian D. Pirlet
Chapter 15. Geographies of Containment and Resistance; Clarence V. Walker, Jr.
SECTION V. ENVIRONMENT AND SOCIETY PINEAPPLES
Chapter 16. Don’t Grow Here: Investigating the Bikini Atoll; Nancy B. Sardone
Chapter 17. The Environmental Impact of Introduced and Reintroduced Species; Kristal Curry