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Today:
Quiz Unit 7
We watched a few appropriate clips from the new Star Trek movie. I wanted to show the students that in sci-fi, the devices and technology may look like magic to us, but they are just the devices used in the story. In Star Trek, people are beamed down to a planet. That's just what they do. However, we would know that it is a mode of transportation. Also, there are doctors, but they just use amazing tools.
I am trying to set a purpose for writing science fiction. I don't want students to write some silly story. I want them to understand that science fiction stories are written to get us to look at our present life. The stories ask us to imagine our future so we can live better today. The first step I am going to have them do is figure out what needs to be commented on about life today. I showed them the scene in Star Trek where Spock was learning. We compared the way he learned to the way we learn today. That future technology makes us rethink how we teach today. Do we need reform? Could some far out idea in a sci-fi movie inspire us to do better? I say yes! We need dreamers to give us ideas we have not thought of!
I suggested three themes we see in sci-fi stories:
1. Something is bad now that the sci-fi story shows will be worse if we don't act now: for example consumer spending ruins the planet in the Disney movie Wall-E.
2. Something is good now, but if we don't think about its implications, it will be bad: In the 40's, we were trying to harness the atom. What resulted was the atomic bomb. In Star Trek, there was a material called Red Matter which caused black holes. I am sure at one time, scientists dreamed of making it, but did they think through the potential dangers of making it?
3. Something is bad now, but if we invent something, we can solve the problem: global warming is a problem. Maybe sci-fi writers will suggest a solution and show us a world we can have in we work towards making the invention a reality.
(picture is from http://cumbriansky.wordpress.com/2009/05/11/star-trekkin/ which is taken from somewhere else I am sure)
