Learn all about science fiction props and costumes in Star Wars, Star Trek, and other space science fiction!

Antimatter, the charge reversed equivalent of matter, has captured the imaginations of science fiction fans for years as a perfectly efficient form of energy. While normal matter consists of atoms with negatively charged electrons orbiting positively charged nuclei, antimatter consists of positively charged positrons orbiting negatively charged anti-nuclei. When antimatter and matter meet, both substances are annihilated, creating massive amounts of energy. Instances in which antimatter is portrayed in science fiction stories (such as Star Trek) are examined, including their purposes (fuel source, weapons, alternate universes) and properties. Students compare and contrast matter and antimatter, learn how antimatter can be used as a form of energy, and consider potential engineering applications for antimatter.

This course explores languages that have been deliberately constructed, including Esperanto, Klingon, and Tolkien’s Elvish. Students construct their own languages while considering the basic linguistic characteristics of various languages of the world. Through regular assignments, students describe the phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and writing system of their constructed language. The final assignment is a grammatical description of the new language.

This course explores the reciprocal relationships among design, science, and technology by covering a wide range of topics including industrial design, architecture, visualization and perception, design computation, material ecology, and environmental design and sustainability. Students will examine how transformations in science and technology have influenced design thinking and vice versa, as well as develop methodologies for design research and collaborate on design solutions to interdisciplinary problems.

Students will learn the potential costs and benefits of social media, digital consumption, and our relationship with technology as a society in the three-week lesson. This inquiry based unit of study will answer the following questions:

Essential Question: How can we use science fiction’s ability to predict the future to help humanity?

Supportive Questions 1: What predictions of future development has science fiction accurately made in the past? This can include technology, privacy, medicine, social justice, political, environmental, education, and economic.

Supportive Question 2: What predictions for future development in contemporary science fiction are positive for the future of humanity? What factors need to begin in your lifetime to make these predictions reality?

Supportive Question 3: What predictions for future development in contemporary science fiction are negative for the future of humanity? What factors need to begin in your lifetime to stop these negative outcomes?

Complementary to 21L.001. A broad survey of texts - literary, philosophical, and sociological - studied to trace the growth of secular humanism, the loss of a supernatural perspective upon human events, and changing conceptions of individual, social, and communal purpose. Stresses appreciation and analysis of texts that came to represent the common cultural possession of our time. Enrollment limited. HASS-D, CI.
Readings this semester ranging from political theory and oratory to autobiography, poetry, and science fiction reflect on war, motives for war, reconciliation and memory. The readings are largely organized around three historical moments: the Renaissance and first contacts between Europe and America (Machiavelli, Cortés, Sahagún); the European age of revolutions (Voltaire, Blake, Williams); the American Civil War and the abolition of slavery (Stowe, Whitman, Lincoln). Readings from the twentieth-century include poetry by Lowell and Walcott and fiction by Ondaatje and O.S. Card.

The Modern Prometheus

Short Description:
Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus (1818) is a novel written by English author Mary Shelley. The novel follows Victor Frankenstein, a young scientist who, using unorthodox scientific experiments, creates a sapient creature. At just 18 years old Shelley began writing the novel which was later published anonymously in London in 1818, when she was 20. Her name first appeared in the second edition, which was published in Paris in 1821.

Long Description:
Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus (1818) is a novel written by English author Mary Shelley. The novel follows Victor Frankenstein, a young scientist who, using unorthodox scientific experiments, creates a sapient creature. At just 18 years old Shelley began writing the novel which was later published anonymously in London in 1818, when she was 20. Her name first appeared in the second edition, which was published in Paris in 1821.

Word Count: 78671

(Note: This resource's metadata has been created automatically by reformatting and/or combining the information that the author initially provided as part of a bulk import process.)

Students talk about their ideas on science fiction and learn about a German TV program and new sci-fi inventions.

This article is about the latest remake of Jules Verne's popular 144-year-old novel Journey to the Center of the Earth that also provides links to the American Geologic Institute's (AIG) Educator Guide for using the movie (Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D) to interest students in geology and earth science.

This free video series provides definitions of literary terms in English literature to students and teachers. It also offers examples of how these literary devices can be applied to poems, plays, novels, and short stories. We are in the process of translating the videos into Spanish and many of them now contain these subtitles.

Boldly go on a voyage with STEM in 30 as we explore the Star Trek universe

This video was created to introduce middle school students to science fiction as a genre. It was intended for educational and instructional purposes only.

See Note at End. This is a guide to science fiction stories and novels which are based on reasonably good science (and can thus be recommended in introductory astronomy courses.) The stories are organized by astronomical topic. While most of the stories are available only in print, a number are now published electronically free of charge, and links to those are included.

NOTE: An updated version of this resource can be found at:
http://bit.ly/astronomyscifi

This is a guide to science fiction stories and novels which are based on reasonably good science (and can thus be recommended in introductory astronomy courses.) The stories are organized by astronomical topic. While most of the stories are available only in print, a number are now published electronically free of charge, and links to those are included.

In this episode we'll explore some of the more fanciful parts of the story and dive deep into tornadoes, flying witches, hot air balloons and - what about those flying monkeys?

This OLogy activity offers kids a fun way to use their astronomical knowledge to create a comic-book travel guide that blends science and fiction. The activity begins by telling kids that the best science fiction writers play with scientific facts to make a story more exciting. It then challenges them to write a travel guide for their favorite destination in space that will convince their Earthling pals to visit. To help inspire and direct kids, the activity includes examples of science fiction writing, simple directions, and a six-panel travel guide shell that's partially illustrated and includes prompts to help kids complete each panel.

This unit seeks to develop an awareness of and the application of a Critical Race Theory lens to the reading and analysis of literature and films. Using an Inquiry based learning approach, it asks students to notice and wonder about the visual images that barrage their daily lives and the coded language they are complicit in use or acquiescence. The unit requires that students guide the inquiry by generating questions about the world as depicted in literature, seek voices not heard or ways that interests may converge. It asks students to try to make sense of their discoveries by explaining and debating positions on issues or concepts based on reflection, research and analysis. This unit seeks to empower middle and high school students to not only question the status quo but challenges them to create/recreate counternarratives reflective of utopians for the world they failed to discover in literature.

This unit will examine the genre of science fiction—specifically Afrofuturism. The genre of Afrofuturism will allow students freedom to creatively write about worlds of utopia not limited by one’s current reality and seek to modify the future by going back to alter one’s future using tools of science, mysticism, and social justice.

Yet Another Science Fiction Textbook (YASFT) is an OER released under a Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International Creative Commons License. It provides a chronological history of Science Fiction (SF) with an emphasis on literature and film, and it includes other useful resources, such as a glossary of terms, an extensive list of SF definitions, additional resources, a syllabus with hyperlinked readings available online, and video lectures.