History Main / FromEntertainmentToEducation

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' made a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NV2taZ8-0EI reference]] is [[ParodyDisplacement used in place of]] of the ''Film/TheWizardOfOz'' for the same purpose.

* The song "We Know the Way" and its accompanying scene from the movie "WesternAnimation/{{Moana}}" has been used in at least one World History class as an illustration of navigation techniques used by the Polynesians.

* The song "We Know the Way" and its accompanying scene from the movie "WesternAnimation/Moana" has been used in at least one World History class as an illustration of navigation techniques used by the Polynesians.

For old classics, didactic works and school staples, see UsefulNotes/SchoolStudyMedia. See {{Edutainment}} for works that were intended as both entertainment and education from the beginning.

* The ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS5E2Darmok Darmok]]" is taught in communications classes. The episode is about friendly communication between cultures that are at first incomprehensible to each other, and explores the importance of syntax, semantics, and cultural context. The aliens speak exclusively in [[SpeaksInShoutOuts trope-based metaphor]], so that without understanding the context their dialogue sounds like unconnected phrases. The aliens, apparently aware of their [[BizarreAlienPsychology unique psychology]], have a first contact protocol that involves establishing a shared set of experiences between two delegates, which can in turn be used as a Rosetta Stone between cultures- in Picard's case, realizing that "Darmok and Jalad" is a reference to a story much like "[[{{Literature/Gilgamesh}} Gilgamesh and Enkidu]]". ("And his eyes were opened!")

* Many films are used in law school professional responsibility classes and continuing legal education and ethics classes to illustrate ethical problems in the practice of law. Some notable examples include the Creator/JohnGrisham adaptations ''Literature/TheRainmaker'' and ''Literature/TheFirm'' (for their Frank depiction of new attorneys being thrust into unethical practices and situations), ''Literature/ToKillAMockingbird'' (with Atticus Finch presented as an example of an attorney who zealously represents his client despite it being unpopular, as required by ethics rules), and ''Film/AndJusticeForAll'' (with Arthur Kirkland presented as an example of an attorney who doesn’t).

* The Creator/JoePesci comedy ''Film/MyCousinVinny'' is often shown in law school classes as an example of accurately researched courtroom procedure.

Encouraging critical thinking is the typical rationale for this type of in-depth study, which is integral to many scholarly pursuits. Sometimes it is applied to films, books, and other works that were almost certainly not meant for intense study, and even in subjects that initially had nothing to do with them.

* ''Literature/ArtemisFowl''. A demon named N'Zall managed to steal a book from humans, and set about protecting their own society against human invasion. Doubly subverted, in that the book was very poorly researched (YeOldeButcheredeEnglishe being the least of its problems) and that the demon, knew humans were far beyond crossbows as weapons, he just used the threat to rule over the demons.

* ''Film/ThePatriot'' - In US classrooms as a supplement to the Revolutionary War unit.

* ''Film/BackToTheFuture'' is used to teach pacing, as all meaningful twists and story beats are spaced almost exactly 30 minutes from each other.

* ''Film/TheIsland'' is used to facilitate discussion of human cloning in Korean ethics class.

%%% Administrivia/The examples in this page are grouped by discipline (A-Z).

* '''Physics + Psychology + Biology + Many more:''' ''Series/TheBigBangTheory'' is predominantly about a number of genius-level characters in high-level sciences, and their dialogue [[ShownTheirWork is exceptionally accurate]] with a large number of [[GeniusBonus in-jokes that are hard to get without knowing the material]]. Dr. David Salzberg of UCLA is a consultant and all [[TheBigBoard white board equations]] are genuine; apparently his students are encouraged to attend a filming session and pay attention to the boards. Any given episode will have the characters make a reference to some higher level material, often juxtaposed with humor, making it very popular for classroom videos. In particular, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDZCyObMfkA Sheldon training Penny using Positive Reinforcement]] (humorously, Sheldon makes a common mistake regarding Negative Reinforcement, which the show corrected years later).

* ''Film/HisGirlFriday'' is used in some Creative Writing courses to explain rapid fire dialogue for use in stage plays.

* The scene from ''Film/TheWizardOfOz'' in which the Scarecrow gets his brain is often used in geometry classes due to [[WritersCannotDoMath the mistake in the Scarecrow's statement]]. On at least one occasion, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NV2taZ8-0EI the reference to it]] on ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' is [[ParodyDisplacement used instead]].

* The ''[[Franchise/StarTrek Star Fleet Technical Manual]]'' used to be required reading at the Naval War College, because the U.S. Navy wanted graduates thinking about how to fight the war several wars after the next war.
* The Creator/GregoryPeck movie ''Film/TwelveOClockHigh'' was used by the United States Air Force Academy to teach the four basic leadership styles, as Peck's character uses all four styles to whip his bomber squadron into shape. It is also used for leadership training at the Air Force's Non-Commissioned Officer Academies.
* ''Film/TheWindAndTheLion''. One segment of the film involves U.S. Marines marching through a town and attacking a palace with an infantry charge. According to Website/TheOtherWiki, the RealLife U.S. Marines play that segment for its advanced infantry classes for midshipmen at the U.S. Naval Academy. Watch the last part of the scene [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vzn7rhNfHLA here]].

* ''Film/{{Gattaca}}'' is often used in ethics classes to discuss moral questions regarding genetic engineering.
* ''Film/TheIsland'' is used to facilitate discussion of human cloning in Korean ethics class.
* ''Film/MinorityReport'' is used in ethics classes to discuss whether it is moral to arrest someone for a crime they haven't committed yet. Furthermore, is it lawful not to warn the prospective criminal and offer reformation?

* Some ''Franchise/StarTrek'' episodes are used by teachers in this context, for example the TNG classic [[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS2E9TheMeasureOfAMan "The Measure of a Man"]], where Picard has to prove Data's "humanity" to a court of law to prevent him from being disassembled as a piece of machinery.

[[AC:Video games]]

* If you study physics long enough you'll probably run into the Galaxy Song from ''Film/MontyPythonsTheMeaningOfLife''.
* Several books have been written to analyze the {{technobabble}} found in ''Franchise/StarTrek''. Such books explain the underlying scientific principles and speculate about which technologies can be plausibly developed (if they haven't already).

* ''VideoGame/TheSims'' is used frequently to examine what-if scenarios, and to teach young students about family dynamics and the real world.
* [[Franchise/StarWars Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader]] is used as a case study in borderline UsefulNotes/{{personality disorder|s}}, [[DiagnosedByTheAudience as he hits six of the nine criteria]] (five being necessary for a diagnosis).

* ''VideoGame/{{Civilization}}'' is often used by history teachers, especially in high school or in colleges, especially given how the video game series features lesser-known civilizations.
* ''Series/HorribleHistories''- Used in classes in the UK as an introduction to various periods of British history. Non British schools will use the topics not related to British history such as Ancient Greece or Ancient Rome.

* ''VideoGame/TheOregonTrail'' is a famous frontier [[EverythingTryingToKillYou death simulator]] / historical EdutainmentGame.
* ''WesternAnimation/OurFriendMartin'', often used in US classrooms to teach about the UsefulNotes/CivilRightsMovement.

[[AC:Fan work]]
* ''Fanfic/AThingOfVikings'': A regular refrain in the fic's reviews is that people have been so fascinated by the story's visit to [[UsefulNotes/TheVikingAge an otherwise obscure era of history]] that the reviewers have started reading up on the time period themselves.

%% * In most college-level communications classes, teachers are required to show a movie and ask their students to apply communications principles to it. Popular choices include ''Film/TwelveAngryMen'', ''Film/{{Big}}'', ''Film/StandByMe'' and ''Film/DrivingMissDaisy''.%%% Examples must not be general. Please expand.

* The ''WesternAnimation/{{Animaniacs}}'' songs "Yakko's World" and "Wakko's America" have been used to teach geography of the entire world and the United States, respectively.
* Some schools have used the ''WesternAnimation/{{Arthur}}'' song "In My Africa" to teach the names of all 54 countries[[note]]including the newest African country, South Sudan[[/note]] on the continent.

* '''Medicine + Sociology + Psychology:''' ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'', in 2005, a new raid dungeon was introduced. The end boss could place a powerful disease, Corrupted Blood, on players to quickly kill them. Some enterprising [[AnAdventurerIsYou "Petmaster"]] players realized that their pets could safely carry the disease out of the dungeon and into the cities to {{Troll}} other players. A player-made epidemic swept the game; the central hubs were filled with corpses, the disease spreading harmlessly to [[NonPlayerCharacter NPCs]] who infected other players, healers attempted to cure the infected, eventually resulting in people abandoning the cities altogether. The servers eventually were shut down to force a fix preventing the disease from leaving the dungeon. The event is now known as [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corrupted_Blood_incident the Corrupted Blood Incident]] and has been used by universities as a study in how epidemics spread; how a disease from a remote region is brought to urban centers by asymptomatic carriers, how people respond to the threat -- some deliberately seeking it out -- and how authorities react to such events. It has also received some attention as a study in terrorism, given that players deliberately infected cities and plotted how to cause as much damage as possible. Eerily, the study would gain an upswing of attention 15 years later in light of the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic.

* '''Sociology + Physiology:''' Shortly after its completion, ''WebVideo/TwitchPlaysPokemonRed'' was examined in some sociology classes to study both the rapid, spontaneous nature of meme theory, and group dynamics on a large scale.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheMagicSchoolBus'' has been used to teach science.

* The "Not the mama" scene on ''Series/{{Dinosaurs}}'' has been used in a few psychology classes teaching Karen Horney's womb envy theory.

* ''WesternAnimation/SagwaTheChineseSiameseCat'' has been used to teach Chinese history in English-speaking elementary classes.

* ''VideoGame/SimCity'' has been used in urban planning classes.

* ''Film/OsmosisJones'' has seen considerable usage in health classes.

* The ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS5E2Darmok Darmok]]" is taught in communications classes. The episode is about friendly communication between cultures that are at first incomprehensible to each other, and explores the importance of syntax, semantics, and cultural context. The aliens speak exclusively in [[SpeaksInShoutOuts trope-based metaphor]], so that without understanding the context their dialogue sounds like unconnected phrases. The aliens, apparently aware of their [[BizarreAlienPsychology unique psychology]], have a first contact protocol that involves establishing a shared set of experiences between two delegates, which can in turn be used as a Rosetta Stone between cultures- in Picard's case, realizing that "Darmok and Jalad" is a reference to a story much like "[[{{Literature/Gilgamesh}} Gilgamesh and Enkidu]]". ("And his eyes were opened!")

%% * In most college-level communications classes, teachers are required to show a movie and ask their students to apply communications principles to it. Popular choices include ''Film/TwelveAngryMen'', ''Film/{{Big}}'', ''Film/StandByMe'' and ''Film/DrivingMissDaisy''. Examples must not be general. Please expand.

* ''Film/SingingInTheRain'' is often used to teach color theory because of its extensive use of ColorCodedCharacters and {{Color Motif}}s. ''Film/TheMatrix'' is sometimes used similarly.

* ''Film/{{Yojimbo}}'' is used as a genre piece to pick apart Westerns.
* ''Film/BackToTheFuture'' is used to teach pacing, as all meaningful twists and story beats are spaced almost exactly 30 minutes from each other.

* ''Film/{{Rashomon}}''. Not only for the trope it coined, (RashomonStyle), but for what it managed in terms of storytelling in its time.

* ''VideoGame/SimCity'' is often used to help teach concepts in urban geography (especially the 2D iterations, which run on pretty much any modern PC and can be licensed cheaply).

* Car enthusiasts use special-targeted television programs, such as ''Series/TopGear'', to learn English whilst learning more about cars and mechanics.

-->'''Random guy in the stall:''' That's a right triangle, you idiot!
-->'''Homer:''' D'oh!

* ''Film/TheBattleOfAlgiers'', a [[ShownTheirWork meticulously-researched]] depiction of the Algerian War of Independence that was co-produced by the leader of the Front de libération nationale (FLN), was used in TheSixties by various leftist and nationalist groups as a how-to guide for conducting guerrilla warfare. Andreas Baader, one of the leaders of the West German leftist terrorist group the Red Army Faction, is said to have regarded this as his favorite movie. On the other side, in 2003 the Pentagon also screened it as part of a primer on ''counter''terrorism at the height of the [[UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror Iraq War]].
* Romance novelist Creator/GeorgetteHeyer did so much research into the Regency and the Napoleonic Wars that her novel ''An Infamous Army'' has been added to the recommended reading list at Sandhurst Military Academy thanks to its superb depiction of the Battle of Waterloo, and extracts from it have been used to ''teach military strategy''.

* ''Film/MinorityReport'' is used in ethics classes to discuss whether it is moral to arrest someone for a crime they haven't committed yet. Furthermore, is it lawful not to warn the prospective criminal and offer reformation?

* ''Theatre/ADollsHouse'' by Creator/HenrikIbsen is used to study feminist ethics and the self.

* ''Series/BillNyeTheScienceGuy'' episodes are used in many science classes around the world.

* ''VideoGame/TheSims'' is used frequently to examine what-if scenarios, and to teach young students about family dynamics and the real world.

* ''Film/{{Memento}}'', to better understand anterograde amnesia (the inability to create new memories).
* ''Film/TheKarateKid'' has been used in psychology classes to teach about the learning process.

* The "Not the mama" scene on ''Series/{{Dinosaurs}}'' has been used in a few psychology classes teaching Karen Horney's womb envy theory.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' Lisa pretends to be a college student and attends a semester-long class on ''JustForFun/TheItchyAndScratchyShow''.

* [[Franchise/StarWars Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader]] is used as a case study in borderline personality disorder, [[AmbiguousDisorder as he hits six of the nine criteria]] (five being necessary for a diagnosis).

%% * ''Series/DegrassiTheNextGeneration'' is used in Canadian health classes. Which episodes are used, and why?

[[folder:Biology]]

[[folder:Medicine]]
* ''Film/OsmosisJones'' has seen considerable usage in health classes.
[[/folder]]

* ''Film/TheBoyInTheStripedPyjamas'' - Used as part of history courses in high school to supplement the World War II unit, something that has been widely criticized by Holocaust historians given that the book is infamously poorly researched and perpetuates the myth that the German civilian populace was unaware of the Holocaust.

* ''Film/TheBoyInTheStripedPyjamas'' - Used as part of history courses in high school to supplement the World War II unit.

* An interesting variation with ''Film/{{Armageddon}}'' as it's not used to teach knowledge, but rather to ''test'' it. The film is so rife with HollywoodScience, that NASA allegedly uses it to see how many inaccuracies recruits are able to identify in their management training program.

* A geologist once did an analysis of the distribution of ore veins in ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim'', speculating about possible plate tectonic shifts that could have occurred to shape the province of Skyrim.

* Jack Webb was a stickler for detail and, for that reason, ''Series/{{Dragnet}}'' and ''Series/AdamTwelve'' have been used by police academies to teach proper procedure. Right down to always wearing a seat belt while in a patrol car.

* ''Film/TheWindAndTheLion''. One segment of the film involves U.S. Marines marching through a town and attacking a palace with an infantry charge. According to Wiki/TheOtherWiki, the RealLife U.S. Marines play that segment for its advanced infantry classes for midshipmen at the U.S. Naval Academy. Watch the last part of the scene [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vzn7rhNfHLA here]].