Film
Festival - A Beautiful Mind
Wednesday
- March 30, 2005
MAC Playhouse - 3:30 pm
- 6:15 PM
College Now Course - Mathematics
Hosted by: Dr. Robert Singer, Professor of English
College Now English Course Coordinator
Professor Ronald Forman, College Now Math Course Coordinator
About the Movie: A Beautiful Mind
Director, Ron Howard - Rating PG
After
a brilliant but antisocial mathematician "accepts" secret work in
cryptography, his life takes a turn to the nightmarish. This true story, starring
Russell Crowe, examines genius, madness and how the two are often confused.
This is a beautiful film that won an Academy Award for Best Picture of the
Year.
About the Presenter: Professor Ronald Forman
Professor Ronald
Forman has been a Math professor for the past 35 years. He is a long-time
film buff and does a weekly radio program devoted to the great music of the
20th century. He truly believes that without math nothing adds up.
Extra
Credit Assignments
Sample ACT Essay
A Beautiful
Mind (2001) was set during a historical period when not a great deal was
known about the nature of mental illnesses, such as Nash's schizophrenia.
Many people believed that mental illness was a moral disorder, that a person
was ill because he/she was evil or immoral; other people believed that mental
illness was purely a matter of "bad genetics" and that nothing could
be done except to institutionalize the afflicted individual. Many other opinions
- some useful and others useless - existed concerning the treatment of mental
diseases.
As time progressed and more clinical research was conducted, science was able
to manufacture, through the development of new pharmaceutical technologies,
stronger and more effective medications that also suggest complimentary advances
in psychiatric procedures that enabled the patient to deal with the various
forms of his/her disorder. Today, the treatment for mental illness such as
Nash had, as well as other serious disorders, can usually be controlled
through medication and therapy. The problem is the cost of research and development
for these and other drugs is extremely high and gets little government support.
The price is "passed on" to the patient and/or the regular taxpayer.
You have been asked to write a letter to your local congressperson in which
you will express your views concerning funding the research and development
of new drugs that target mental disorders such as the one dramatized in the
film, A Beautiful Mind. Do you believe that the government should be
involved in supporting research and development of these drugs? Should the
funding be in the form of grants or tax abatements to these companies? Who
will own any discoveries that are developed? Who determines the selection
of the disease, the form of the treatment, and the patients it will be tested
on? Should this be the government's decision, the pharmaceutical company's
decision, the public's decision, or something else?
Fully discuss your view; you may refer to past or recent historical events
as presented in any form of media coverage, other opinions, or even the film,
A Beautiful Mind.
Mini-Research Project
(NOTE: This
is NOT a research paper - it is a research-oriented, library experience
in which students gather and categorize information. They can prepare outlines,
note-cards, bibliography, cite references, or practice any combination of
these skills associated with preparing a research paper. The use of the Internet
is also encouraged.)
Prepare an investigative project that focuses on any one of the following
topics associated with or suggested by the film, A Beautiful Mind.
a) Schizophrenia
b) The Nobel Prize
c) Other Famous Twentieth Century Mathematicians
d) The Cold War
Standard
College Essay
Many issues
arise from the analysis and discussion of the film, A Beautiful Mind.
Some of these issues involve:
problems associated with and treatments for mental diseases; problems that
students, especially women, encounter in academic life; the importance of
mathematics to related academic areas of research and analysis; and the need
to communicate personal and professional difficulties to others.
In a full-length essay (approximately 400-500 words), later to be revised
for content and correctness, discuss any of the issues raised in the film,
A Beautiful Mind that you consider to be of special interest either
for yourself or for society. Explain why and how these issues are significant
not only in the film but also in relationship to your own life, society, or
even both. You may refer to this film or any other, past or recent historical
events as presented in any form of media coverage, and other people's opinions.
Event Photos A Beautiful Mind - March 30, 2005:
College Now Math teachers,
Mrs. Kwapwich (left) and Mrs. Eisen (right)
prior to the movie with two of their students.
Professor Ron Forman, College Now Math Course Coordinator (left) and
Dr. Robert Singer, College Now Film Festival Host, discuss the life of famed
mathematician John Nash before the screening of A Beautiful Mind.
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Students
in attendance at the film festival.
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