Columbus (Georgia) College's Challenge Squared program consists of three 2-week enrichment day camps for gifted students in grades 5 through 10. In past years, students have worked with an artist to create local history murals and have written and produced video plays in cooperation with a media specialist. Most recently, students were involved in…

This Digest argues that a well designed course of instruction can utilize motion pictures, television, and video tapes to channel a student's enthusiasm and route it to an academically useful goal. Sections of the Digest discuss what films and television offer to educators; potential applications in language arts classrooms; some other…

This paper outlines a senior seminar, or "capstone" course, in computer science developed at the University of South Carolina at Spartanburg. It was intended that the senior seminar should differ in classroom format from other courses in the major. Course requirements include timed oral presentations, reading of science fiction in which…

A college writing instructor used lesbian and gay fiction in three of his classes--two freshman composition classes and a science fiction class. His university accepted the instructor's right to use these materials and acknowledged students' rights to opt out of the classes after they learned the requirements of the class. The instructor viewed…

This dissertation documents the different ways in which specialists approach science fiction. Descriptions of courses are presented for four universities, two four-year colleges, and one two-year community college. At all the schools, science fiction is a medium for social criticism. Otherwise the courses differ in content, format, and the methods…

General semantics and science fiction are disciplines that can be incorporated in lectures for public speaking and other speech communication classes. Alfred Korzybski's theories of general semantics lend themselves to researching, preparing, delivering interpersonal communication messages, and establishing student interest in foreign languages,…

This teacher resource handbook provides a guide to science fiction books and themes for developing a secondary or university course on science fiction literature. The first section defines and examines the origin and reputation of science fiction writing. Section two provides a history of science fiction literature, including short biographies of…

Discusses two paperback books, "The Malacia Tapestry" and "The Shattered Chain," that are written with a junk-fiction formula yet have serious themes. Contends that teachers may find the books useful in motivating thoughtful nonreaders. (FL)

An outline of a "co-emergent" pedagogical perspective describes the conceptual framework for an advanced university-level English-as-a-Foreign-Language (EFL) course. The course framework, which involves choosing and studying a brief science fiction story, allows for transcultural encounters via a transactional literary approach in which…

To control for interactions in learning research due to subjects' prior knowledge of the instructional material presented, an imaginary curriculum was presented with a computer assisted technique based on Carl Berieter's imaginary science of Xenograde systems. The curriculum consisted of a classification system for ten conceptual classes of…

Uses some of the most thoughtful writers of science fiction as guides to possible future educational needs and developments and offers suggestions as to ways Scotland might adapt and develop its educational system to meet those needs and developments. (CM)

Decries the back to basics movement and suggests that it is not the place of those with doctoral degrees to teach spelling, punctuation, and grammar. Proposes that the proper place for such instruction is in the primary grades. (RBW)

In developing a college English course on reading and writing in the information age that would make use of the Internet and cyberspace-based science fiction, a professor encountered considerable resistance from colleagues who did not understand the language and concepts being used and who worried about crossing the boundaries into other…

Many feel that secondary school graduates are not prepared to compete in a world of rapidly expanding technology. High school and college students in the United States often prefer fantasy to science. This book offers a strategy for overcoming student apathy toward the physical sciences by harnessing the power of the cinema. In it, ten popular…

This resource list contains stories on the following topics: antimatter, asteroids, astronomers, black holes, comets, cosmology, jupiter, life elsewhere, mars, mercury, meteors, the moon, particle physics, pluto, quantum mechanics, quasars and active galaxies, relativity, saturn, stars, the sun, supernovae and neutron stars, time travel, uranus,…