To provide the current student generation with an innovative online learning method, podcasts with science fiction short stories are introduced to marketing education. Findings from neurology and psychology point to positive effects of storytelling for gaining knowledge and developing interpersonal skills. Science fiction stories challenge common…

"Writing Strategies for Talent Development" helps educators incorporate effective and engaging writing strategies into their classroom that are designed to reach struggling and gifted students alike. This guide demonstrates how teachers can provide the means to write (with appropriate tools and classroom structures), the motivation to…

The purpose of this article is to provide examples of business concepts appearing in science fiction, offering accounting and business educators a means to engage students and allow students to make connections with business concepts outside of the strict business realm, resulting in increased long-term learning. To accomplish this, the "Star…

An NCSS Technology Position Statement and Guidelines, published in 2006 (an updated version is published in this issue of "Social Education"), affirms that social studies students should critically examine relations between technology and society. This article describes how teachers can use science fiction to introduce critical questions…

After the success of a course on cryptography for a general audience, based on Simon Singh's "The Code Book" [49], I decided to try again and create a mathematics course for a general audience based on "The Physics of Star Trek" by Lawrence Krauss [32]. This article looks at the challenges of designing a physics-based mathematics course "from…

In 2006 I had the chance to design a physics course for students not majoring in scientific fields. I chose to shape the course around science fiction, not as a source for quantitative problems but as a means for conveying important physics concepts. I hoped that, by encountering these concepts in narratives, students with little or no science or…

"Teaching Young Adult Literature Today" introduces the reader to what is current and relevant in the plethora of good books available for adolescents. More importantly, literary experts illustrate how teachers everywhere can help their students become lifelong readers by simply introducing them to great reads--smart, insightful, and engaging books…

Students obtain much misinformation from TV and movies. Teachers can use the analysis of science fiction to correct misconceptions about biology and spur students' interests in the subject. Suggestions for discussions and assignments based on literary-quality science fiction works are included.

This article describes the Frank Reade dime novels, published in 1882, that are now recognized as the beginnings of the modern science fiction novel in the United States. They illustrate the hope that Americans of the time held for the future that newly invented technology could offer. Although the Frank Reade stories highlighted the promise of…

This article reports on a UKLA-funded project in which a group of 10 teachers in South Wales were involved. The televised science fiction drama "Doctor Who" was chosen as the theme as it was based on popular culture as well as being of local and national interest. The main character in this television drama is an alien who can fly…

Authors Marsha M. Sprague and Kara K. Keeling propose a language arts curriculum that incorporates literature-based discussions to help adolescent girls deal constructively with difficult issues and develop their own authentic voices. To help put such a curriculum into action, this book offers the following resources: (1) A research base to frame…

Molecular evolution provides an interesting context in which to use problem-based learning because it integrates a variety of topics in biology, biochemistry, and molecular biology. This three-stage problem for advanced students deals with the structure, multiple functions, and properties of lactate dehydrogenase isozymes, and the related…

The term "science fiction" has become synonymous, in the media at least, for any discovery in science too incredible or unexpected for the nonscientist to imagine. One of the most common classroom uses of science fiction is for students to pick out flaws in science fiction movies or television shows. Unfortunately, this approach can result in…

Fantasy and science fiction are two genres that are products of imagination. Both present alternate worlds governed by their own laws and values, but it is the plausibility of events in each world that sets the two apart. In fantasy, events happen by magic or inexplicable means. In science fiction, events could happen based on advanced…

Stories and poems are the mainstay of primary education; children of all ages love them and children themselves are capable of writing very powerful material. Using poems, stories and songs in science allows children to access science from a different point of view. In this article, the author makes some suggestions and presents a list of useful…