10 Kids Movies for Science Class: Popular Movies for Science Education

Parents and teachers are always looking for ways to make science education more exciting and accessible. Today's kids are movie lovers. While television isn't a substitute for great science classes, hands on science experiments or good old fashion research, popular kid's shows and movies can be a starting platform for science education at home or in the classroom.

There are many popular kid's series and movies that can offer opportunities to build science vocabulary and explore science related concepts. These science related movies are also a good sounding board to guide further research on human behavior, animal habits, geography, technology, health, the environment and more.

Science teachers obviously should always follow a school's guidelines for previewing or showing movies in the classroom. Parents should always consider age appropriateness regardless of the educational benefits of any movie or show.

Sid the Science Kid from PBS:

Sid the Science Kid is an animated show on PBS with DVDs available that are geared towards preschoolers, although I have it on good authority from some elementary school age kids that this show is "pretty cool" and that they "learned a lot" from it too.

Examples of science themes from Sid the Science Kid: "Getting a Shot: You can do it!" or "Why do bananas turn brown?" Sid helps kids learn more about a variety of science concepts.

Go Diego Go! Animal Rescuer from Nick Jr.:

The Go Diego Go! Animal Rescuer series show on Nick Jr. with DVDs available is geared for preschool and young elementary students. Diego is always rescuing animals so this show is rich with science vocabulary including animal names and habits, geography and messages about caring for the environment.

Examples of science themes from Go Diego Go!: Diego rescues a variety of animals including lion cubs, baby sea turtles, wolf pups and jaguars and visits a variety of habitats from the African safari to the Artic.

The Magic School Bus:

The Magic School Bus movies are based on the popular science books by Joanna Cole and Bruce Dergen. Ms. Frizzle and her field trips in the magic school bus are very popular and teach both children (and often adults too) a lot of science facts as they travel all over, even inside the earth and back in time.

Examples of science themes from the Magic School Bus: There are a variety of science themes included in The Magic School Bus from the Human Body, Space Adventures, Bugs, Dinosaurs and the Electric Field Trip.

These three popular science themed television show and movie series are very worthy science lesson starters. Now let's visit the popular kid's movies that have science themes, vocabulary and research question starters as well for elementary age students.

Whether or not science teachers show these movies in the classroom, science teachers can poll students on which of these movies that have they have seen and use them as starting points for further discussion and research.

Finding Nemo:

Nemo, a clown fish, gets lost in the ocean after not following the rules.

This movie explores safety, the coral reefs, anemones, the age of sea turtles and more as Dad searches for Nemo and Nemo tries to find his way back home.

A Bug's Life:

An unpopular ant tries to rally a group of warrior insects (who turn out to be circus actors) to save his colony.

This movie explores the role of the queen, insect behaviors, reusing of common household objects as well as food supplies.

Cats and Dogs:

A young boy reluctantly befriends a dog sent in to save his family and the world as cats attempt to take over the world by sabotaging the efforts of the scientist dad to create a cure for dog allergies.

This movie explores scientific labs and pet allergies as well as human and pet relationships.

Over the Hedge:

A raccoon tries to save himself from a greedy bear by eliciting other forest friends to collect a bounty of human food.

This movie explores animal food foraging, unhealthy human diets, animal defense systems and more.

Happy Feet:

A penguin that has dance happy feet instead of singing skills finds his own beat as well why penguins are losing their food supply.

This movie explores penguin habits, variations among species and how human behaviors affect animals.

Ice Age:

An unlikely trio including a mammoth, a tiger and a sloth return a human baby and become their own pack.

This movie explores weather, the animal food chain, extinct animals and more.

Wall-E:

A robot left on Earth after humans have had to evacuate discovers love and the plant that may save Earth after all.

This movie explores human health, the environment, technology and more.

Each of these animated movies are fictional stories that are based on a variety of scientific facts. These science related movies are a fun basis for students to separate scientific fact from fiction and further explore science related vocabulary and concepts.

It is often interesting to see what students learn from animated movies that can be applied to their own lives. While Wall-E has been touted as a love story with certainly a strong environmental theme, one fifth-grader I asked about the movie came with away with this message:

"The humans had so much technology to do everything that they actually quit using their bodies. They didn't use them so they became way out of shape. That was really scary."

As a parent and teacher concerned about childhood obesity, I find this to be a very worthy message. While it may appear that the movie Wall-E was primarily about caring for our environment, perhaps some children will garner a message about caring for themselves.

Each of these movies has inherent science lessons. Some of them we as teachers and parents can predict and others students will siphon out for themselves and present to us. In the end, this is the ultimate outcome for any science education.