Jeremy Belcher needed a way to get his students excited to learn and has turned to comic books and superheros to teach to his Kentucky students.  Belcher’s new superhero instruction unit challenges students to use their writing skills to create stories about their heroes’ backgrounds, their math skills to make graphs and charts of their heroes’ powers and their science skills to explain how their heroes’ powers work.  Belcher even incorporated social studies by having students choose hometowns for their heroes and then research those cities.

Inspired by another teacher at North Bullitt High School and seeing the idea work, Belcher brought the five-week unit to his students at Mount Washington Middle School.  The comic book spin causes the students to become focused, engaged and excited.

Post winter break the students will begin to work on villains to go along with their hero creations.

This isn’t the first time teachers have gone to comics to inspire and challenge students.  Gwen Stacy’s death in Spider-man is often used by teachers to teach about physics and solve the puzzle of who in fact killed her.  It even inspired a book The Physics of Superheros by Dr. James Kakalios.