Dive into activities that show how films bring history to life and spark our imagination for the future.
Check out the latest half hour episode featuring hands-on activities, explanations of aviation and space topics. Perfect for middle school classrooms.
March 18 | 8 - 9:15 pm
Unleash your students’ creativity through the medium of stop motion animation and try your hand at your own space-inspired animation.
Did you know the first ever Academy Award for Best Picture went to a movie about aviation?
Wings (1927) is a silent film classic with incredible aerial combat scenes.
Director William Wellman was an actual WWI fighter pilot, giving the film a skillful hand with the subject matter. To add realism to the film, Wellman wanted his two male leads to actually pilot their own aircraft as much as possible. This was not a problem for Richard Arlen, who served as a flight instructor in the Royal Flying Corps in WWI. Buddy Rogers, however, took an intensive two-weeks of flight training to learn the basics. Both actors always flew with an experienced U.S. Army pilot in the back seat just in case.
How many rom-coms can you name where the meet cute, the almost meet, the epic chase, or the long distance relationships happens thanks to a terminal or twist of fate seat assignment? We can name at least six.
In 2016, the popular movie Hidden Figures cast a spotlight on the Black women who worked as computers on the Mercury missions.
The 2018 movie First Man tracks the dramatic story leading to the first man on the Moon.
In 1995, Apollo 13 told the nail-biting story of the Apollo mission that famously “had a problem.”
Science fiction allows us to imagine what happened a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, or to boldly go where no one has gone before. Through science fiction, we're able to explore new frontiers in science, innovation, and society.
When humans went to actual outer space, on Earth we imagined new stories for people (and aliens) in fictional space. Some of our most popular and enduring works of science fiction were born in the 1960s and 1970s—and continue today.
The Martian inspired the largest number of applications to the astronaut program than ever before in history. Join Andy Weir, author of novel, and curator Matt Shindell to explore The Martian's impact.
Revisit this 1998 film and take a look at our favorite inaccuracies and few things that seemed ridiculous, but actually turned out to be true.
Revisit Troop Zero and the real history behind the voices on the Voyager Golden Record. Spoiler: they weren't actually the voices of Birdie Scouts.
This 1982 French graphic novel, turned 2013 Korean action film, and 2020 TV series, is set in a post-apocalyptic world where all that is left of humanity is a train endlessly circling the globe.
It has it all: sci-fi, action, and comedy, an underdog who saves the day, and space aliens! It’s an ardent love letter about the importance of fans.
Revisit this 2003 star-studded movie to explore its questionable science, and why it’s still a favorite.
What if there are intelligent lifeforms elsewhere in the universe? And what if all we need to do to find them is to listen to the right radio frequency at the right time?
We couldn’t talk about air and space in the movies without a closeup on us.
In the film, Diana Prince and Steve Trevor visit the Museum to catch Steve up on what he’s missed since his death.
This movie was filmed in part at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center. It features the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird as Jetfire, a wise, elderly, former evil Transformer turned good.
Audiences visit the Museum with Steve Rogers as he explores an exhibit ... about him. We don’t have an entire exhibit Captain America—but we will be opening our new World War II exhibit next year.*
*You'll have to visit the National Museum of American History to see the shield.
The second installment of Night at the Museum took some liberties with the Museum. However, the film did feature many of the stories we tell. Select a character to learn the fact behind the fiction.
