Christmas is around the corner. Your students are downing hot chocolate and candy canes; loaded up on sugar. Mrs. So-and-So is letting them color and do whatever they want in class, so your students don’t have a lot of structure. You’ve finally finished your unit and gave the last test before break. While you clean up and grade those last few assignments, you need to distract your students. In comes a chemistry Christmas movie, just in time!
Nothing Really Works
I hate to be the bearer of bad news. There’s no fun Hollywood movie (not a boring documentary) that will keep your students entertained that is strictly about chemistry. You can show some science-y movies. Things like The Martian or Flubber come to mind. Those movies are about scientists, and they use chemistry. But they’re not super chemistry-ish, ya know? Unfortunately, Hollywood has decided that Physics and Biology are the cool sciences. I’m thinking about all those outer space movies and Jurassic Park. But I have a hack that can make this work for you.
But Truthfully, Everything Works
The first school I taught at was very strict in their “no movie unless it’s educational” rule. PLUS they were very secular. We had students from every religious background, so in my class I focused on “Winter” instead of Christmas.
So I decided to show Frosty the Snowman.
Within that I had students answer questions about melting point, density, and whether the refrigerated boxcar on the train was endothermic or exothermic.
YOU CAN FIND CHEMISTRY IN LITERALLY ANY MOVIE. Okay, well not literally, but a lot of them.
So here’s an example: “Assuming Frosty’s mass is 800 kg. Convert his mass to grams.” See what I mean?
Finding Chemistry in Any Movie
I did the same for “Frosty’s Winter Wonderland” the following year. And a few years later, I added in The Polar Express. (For some reason, every year my students BEG to watch this movie.) Here’s a sample question from The Polar Express movie sheet: “The ticket clicker is made of metal. What are three properties of metals?” And another: “Coal is pure carbon. What is another form of pure carbon?” (The train is powered by coal.)
SEE?
You can do this with any movie YOU enjoy! The only thing is that you have to dedicate some time to watching the movie ahead of time to come up with the questions (and preferable to your students, have them in order.)
If you don’t have the time (or desire) to do make a chemistry Christmas movie sheet, you can get three in my Chemistry of Snowflakes Pack. Let me tell you more about what’s inside!
Chemistry Christmas Activities
Borax Snowflakes Lab
I think we’re all pretty familiar with the Borax recrystallization lab. In my Chemistry of Snowflakes Pack you’ll find a lab on making Christmas ornaments with the magic of chemistry! The students focus on making a supersaturated solution of the sodium borate in Borax. Your students may have done this activity before. It’s a common teacher craftivity. But this lab has a strong focus on Solutions. Specifically supersaturated solutions, making it perfect for high school chemistry students to complete right before Christmas break.
Reading Comprehension on Snowflakes
Got the sniffles? Students need a quiet class day? Want to teach your students something without having to get in front of the room and lecture to them? Any way, the reading comprehension activity in the Snowflakes Pack is on how snowflakes are formed. The focus in this case is on intermolecular forces. Specifically hydrogen-bonding and dispersion forces. Usually at Christmas break, my chemistry students are already done with intermolecular forces, so this is a great review activity for them. Plus, if you don’t use it at Christmas time, you can use it deeper into the winter season.
Door Decorating Craft
While that first school really was not on board with Christmas, they did host a door decorating contest. We did it a few times a year. We did it for Black History Month and Women’s History Month too. We got bonus points if the doors were decorated with something educational as opposed to “just cute/fun.” So I chose to go with scientifically accurate paper snowflakes. Most of the time, when kids cut paper snowflakes, they fold them all willy-nilly and you wind up with 4,5 and 7 branched snowflakes. (Why is it never six?) So in the Snowflakes Pack you’ll also find the directions for folding scientifically accurate snowflakes and some posters for you door if you want to create a winter wonderland that is also educational.
