Using the Technology of Hollywood Stunts and Special Effects to Inspire Students in STEM Frontiers

Steve Wolf believes that Hollywood movie stunts and special effects can teach kids a lot about physics, chemistry and other frontiers of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). This is why as president of Wolf Stuntworks and founder of Science in the Movies, he uses his tech experience in the entertainment industry to capture and hold kids’ attention, helping them in the process to master the STEM skills they’ll need to solve tomorrow’s challenges.

“The biggest thing you can do for a student is foster their sense of curiosity,” which is what his Science in the Movies outreach focuses on by making science, engaging and exciting, says Steve, a former Hollywood stunt and special-effects coordinator whose work has been included in such films as The Firm, Three Men and a Baby, The Last Boy Scout, The Client, The Jungle Book, and Cast Away; and such TV productions as Law & Order, America’s Most Wanted, The David Letterman Show, and Whitney Houston’s music videos.  He is also known for receiving an Academy Award for his performance in Palingenesis, and for directing Bending Light.

In his outreach to students, young learners get first-hand insight into key principles of science, including understanding trajectory through how motorcycle stunts are conducted; physics via how pulleys are used to hoist Spider-Man, or speed and velocity from how he set up wind machines to create chaos in Tom Hanks’s “Cast Away” movie.

Steve studied communications at Tulane University, and received a B.A. in Writing and Literature with an emphasis on Shakespeare from Columbia University in New York City.  He’s also a graduate of Meisner Training and the Actors Movement Studio.