Icarus Documentary Guide (Performance Enhancing Drugs in Sports Medicine)

"Icarus" follows fillmaker Bryan Fogel as he does an experiment with PEDs and aerobic performance. He completes an exercise while clean, and then attempts the same exercise after cycling through a Steroid Regiment ordered by a Russian scientist. It's a GREAT look into how Olympic athletes use and get away with using PEDs and their affect on the body. I will say that after 47 minutes, the documentary switches from being primarily about the drugs to being about politics in Russia and how the scientist helping Fogle has to escape. You could get away with not showing the second half of the documentary, however, it is very eye-opening for students to see how people live in fear of their government in other countries.

Icarus is currently available on Netflix. It is rated TV-MA (strong language). I have parents sign a "waiver" at the beginning of the school year stating they are okay with the list of documentaries I might use in class. I usually don't get to them all, but I have their approval ahead of time.

What do you get? A 2 page document for your students to complete while watching the documentary "Icarus." There is a chart for students to organize information on the 5 performance enhancing drugs referenced throughout this documentary, 6 guided questions (that follow the order of the movie), and 7 discussion questions that are opinion based. I included an answer key for the first part of the worksheet, but the discussion questions are opinion-based.

How can you use it? Students should use this to guide them through viewing this documentary. I would instruct them to read through the discussion questions before watching so they can be thinking about how they want to answer them. After the movie, letting the class debate their responses to these questions will lead to some amazing discussions.