Science Fiction in the Science Classroom

Introduction
Web Sites
Your SciFiZone Connection

Teacher's Notes
Alien by Design
Lunar Olympics
Take Me to the Moon
Test Your Sci-Fi Eye!
Scared Yet?
Science Fiction for the Holidays
Telltale Titles

Introduction

The use and, indeed, acceptance of science fiction as a valid tool in teaching is very similar to the situation facing information technology. While most profess to knowing its value, there is often only one teacher in a department or school who is a true convert, acting as both expert and advocate. This person may be considered an invaluable resource by many peers. At the same time, others may avoid this person and the crazy ideas he or she brings to school, perhaps hoping it's a mildly harmless phase that will go away with experience in the real world of classroom, budgets, and time. There is almost always at least one who speaks out in scornful dismissal, no matter how passionate the presentation or eloquent the proof.

Of course, neither slavish devotion nor scorn are helpful reactions. The teacher who knows and loves science fiction may have no idea how to adopt it as a useful resource for students. I've met many such people, wonderful educators, who confess they just want to have a chance to share their love of the genre with anyone and students, willing or not, are a captive audience. As for scorn, there will always be those who view the unfamiliar with hesitation and discomfort.

But just as information technology is permeating and enriching education, from curriculum to the list of Internet sites students talk about after class, so is this body of speculative literature, known as science fiction, beginning to take on a whole new relevance in today's classrooms. I hope you find this resource helps you use science fiction in a meaningful and enjoyable way with your students.

And if they develop a love of science fiction along the way, that's fine, too.

— Julie E. Czerneda
No Limits: Developing Scientific Literacy Using Science Fiction
Published by Trifolium Books, Toronto

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Web Sites

Recommended Science Fiction for Use as a Classroom Tool. List provided by writers Nancy Etchemendy and Pat Murphy. See http://www.sff.net/people/etchemendy/recommendedsf.htm.

Science Fiction and Fantasy for Children: An Annotated Bibliography for Educators. Prepared by Linda Day, University of Guelph, Ontario. See http://libnt1.lib.uoguelph.ca/SFBib/index.htm

Reading for the Future. The Web site for an organization whose aim is to help young people develop a love of reading and intellectual adventure through the vehicle of science fiction, fantasy, and other speculative fiction. See http://www.readingforfuture.com/

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Your SciFiZone Connection

Each week, the SNK SciFiZone features an activity that brings an aspect of science fiction to students. The following notes provide teachers with hints on how to use this material in the classroom.

Archive of scifi activities

Teacher's Notes: Alien by Design

This activity can be used as an introduction to a unit on living systems, allowing you to evaluate the existing knowledge base of your class, or as the culminating project for such a unit. It can also be used as a useful bridge between biology and space science, by adding the aspect of designing a spacesuit to help the designed alien survive in our or another environment.

Hints:

• Have students consider behaviors as well as structures.
• The criteria cited here are only suggestions. You may prefer to work with your students to generate a different set of environmental constraints. One of the most interesting is to have students find the conditions on Mars, the moon, Europa, or one of Earth's more extreme environments, then use these for the design challenge.
• Accept any design that the students are able to support with logical arguments based on their present knowledge.
• Given them the opportunity to reexamine their designs and make any changes they feel necessary.
• Display the results. If you wish, add language arts integration by having students write a short science fiction story featuring the "alien" of their choice.

We can help. Contact us at scifizone@snkids.com with any questions and to find out how you can share your class results with other students and educators on this Web site. There are prizes available for participating students at no charge.

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Teacher's Notes: Lunar Olympics

Thinking about what the Olympics would be like on the moon is a nice way to build on whatever Olympic fever your students may have experienced during the summer and move into space exploration studies. Use the questions to make the link.

If you wish, have students work in groups to prepare a lunar "bid" to host the Olympics. They should consider as many aspects of the Olympics as possible, from living quarters on the moon for participants to managing spectator and volunteer traffic. Encourage them to come up with solutions to overcome potential obstacles that could jeopardize the bid. For example, if water isn't available, how might it be possible to simulate events such as swimming or sailing?

Here are some other questions to consider. How does the human body perform in a low-gravity environment? Are the Summer Games the right choice for the moon, or would the dust on the surface and the lunar landscape make the Winter Games a better choice?

Remind students that one of the benefits of hosting an Olympics is the building of facilities that will be used by the local community after the games. Have them consider the importance of bringing physical fitness and the pleasure of sport to a lunar colony.

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Teacher's Notes: Take Me to the Moon

Scientists are working on the technology and other requirements to establish permanent human settlements on the moon and elsewhere. They consider what is already known about extended life in extreme environments as well as what is being learned with every new space expedition. (See "Destination Mars" at http://www.sciencenewsforkids.org/articles/20040317/Feature1.asp.)

Moon Base Alpha

NASA Johnson Space Center

Most students will not have this expertise, but there are many aspects of living on the moon that all can imagine. This is one of the more potent aspects of science fiction. It asks the reader or viewer to enter a situation that doesn't necessarily exist—yet.

Students can explore ideas such as the notion of personal belongings—the value of something on Earth versus on the moon; what is private and what would be shared. They can look at how a person might change after living away from Earth for a long period. These are all important factors when planning a successful habitat for humanity away from Earth.

You can use the questions posed in this activity in a number of ways. For example, you can use them in a survival game, in which students write down their personal items, drop the selections into a "shared" pot, then try to use these items collectively to solve a problem you provide. You can also make the set of selected items the basis for letters home that students would imagine writing from the moon, describing what they wished they'd brought with them. (Hint: Use items picked by one class as the set available to students in another class, and vice versa.)

NASA's Johnson Space Center offers a set of lessons and other material devoted to issues involved in establishing a colony on the moon. See aerospacescholars.jsc.nasa.gov/HAS/cirr/em/8/1.cfm.

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Teacher's Notes: Test Your Sci-Fi Eye!

As demonstrated by this quiz, the human brain is able to extrapolate a full image from a mere portion, especially if that image is of something familiar. This is an advantage for several reasons. The ability to discern a known shape from a glimpse of only part permits an organism that relies on sight to respond more quickly to potential danger, such as a predator. It can help foraging animals locate food. For example, ravens who scavenge the remains of deer are able to find a carcass even when most of it is buried in snow and all they can "see" is a hoof or antlers.

Movies and animation take advantage of our brain's ability to fill in missing detail by fooling us into "seeing" motion when really all that is being seen is a series of still images. It can be a disadvantage when we are fooled into thinking we see what isn't really there. Eyewitness accounts are notoriously unreliable for this reason. Have students come up with a list of "partial sightings" that have led to belief in such icons as the Loch Ness monster, UFOs, extinct animals being alive, etc. Discuss the importance of verifying such information in other ways.

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Teacher's Notes: Scared Yet?

All of the shows or movies mentioned in the quiz have a science-related terror in either one or more episodes, or as a prevalent theme. You can use the answers to this quiz to start a class list of what worries society as a whole about science and technology. From this point, you can move into a discussion of how these fears come to be and whether they are founded in fact. Finish by leading students to realize that, while speculating about possible harmful consequences is as vital as pondering useful ones, such speculations are only starting points for investigation and experiment, not facts.

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Teacher's Notes: Science Fiction for the Holidays

This survey provides several engaging ways to link science to many aspects of today's society.

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Teacher's Notes: Telltale Titles

One of the overlooked aspects of titles is their emotional content. Titles are often the only place where a science writer can let go and have some fun. Human nature being what it is, entertaining titles attract readers, whether scientists or those who normally avoid science.

The emotional tone of a title can be used as a gauge of the author's opinion of the science about to be discussed. In magazines such as Science News, the emotional tone is generally one of excitement. There's a definite "wow, look at this!" factor, along with frequent nods to non-science pop culture that help add personal relevance for readers even before the article is read.

One has only to look at the titles on store shelves, or in tabloids, to see other emotions on display. It isn't hard to find examples that show fear, distrust, or evidence of a particular agenda.

After students have done these three challenges—looking at science fiction titles, science titles, and analyzing the power of words from titles—begin a classroom display of titles from popular science articles, newspaper headlines, documentary titles, and so on, as follows.

1. Organize the display space by science topic. (Or pick only titles that relate to a particular topic.)
2. Decide on the emotional tones you will consider. For example: "wonder," "caution," "surprise," and "fear."
3. Before a new title is added, have students reach a decision on which emotional tone is conveyed by that title. Record their decision by mounting the title on a piece of colored paper, coded by tone.
4. As the collection grows, have students look for trends. If you have a variety of science topics, is there one that seems to be full of more "wonder" at the moment than "fear?" Discuss why.

History, Societal Extension: Have interested students collect examples of titles from older newspapers and magazines. Compare them to those of the present day in terms of emotional tone, science topic, word use.

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