An Inquiry-Based Strategy: Using Film to Teach Geography (Hollywood or History?)

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.