At the simplest level, cyberspace is a sea of information that functions as a huge, generally disorganized, database. At a more complex level, cyberspace functions as a communication medium. In the most complex sense, cyberspace may be conceived as a parallel world where people can conduct ordinary activities without engaging in the physical acts…

Teacher educator and researcher Peterson works with eighth-grade science teacher, Rochwerger, who believes that writing is a learning tool that will enable her students to become scientifically literate. Here, we see this belief played out through an action research project that found students using a genre of their choice to write about what they…

Introducing students to the magic of theater and helping them develop dramatic skills, this book presents nine reproducible scripts for short plays (15 to 25 minutes) with characters and story lines that will appeal to young people. The scripts in the book encompass a variety of story types, from adaptations of well-known fairy tales to original…

This paper describes the content and implementation of a course designed to teach science and technology majors about science fiction. Although many students had expressed little interest in the imaginative world of literature, the scientific content of the texts used attracted their attention and legitimized their involvement in something outside…

An undergraduate course in ancient history which debunks the current hypothesis that the earth was visited from outerspace is described. (DE)

This paper discusses the role that geography plays in the enhanced comprehension of some literature. One way to demonstrate the value and utility of geography is to show how geographers can contribute to other fields and the interrelationships with other disciplines. Many novelists have used geographical concepts to good advantage. Examples…

Science fiction offers many perspectives on human communication, including (1) a recurring theme about intrapersonal communication, (2) a nontraditional perspective on "family" communication, and (3) a philosophy of communication that can be drawn from some fantasy literature. Although numerous science fiction stories describe alien creatures who…

A study investigated the appropriateness of the "Star Trek" book series for use as recreational reading material for elementary school children. The 12 books were adapted from the television series by James Blish. Appropriateness was determined by evaluating the quality and the readability levels of the books. Quality was ascertained by examining…

This collection of selected bibliographies covers the following areas: (1) journal articles which deal with the problems of library collections, and those that offer guidelines and techniques for collection building; (2) fiction reviewing sources with publishers addresses and prices; (3) sources of information for acquisition of science fiction…

This paper suggests that now that science fiction has joined the educational establishment there is good reason to examine the uses of science fiction. It is further argued that if English teachers consider science fiction as a means rather than as an end, the teaching of science fiction will be improved and so will the more important tasks of…

The principles and practices of general semantics can be taught to college classes within the context of quality science fiction writings. The works of A. E. van Vogt and Robert Heinlein are particularly useful in exemplifying the details of general semantics. These works and some other science fiction are based upon the Korzybskian principles of…

A critical symposium on science fiction, this book features essays (by Ben Bova, Frederik Pohl, George Zebrowski, Frank Herbert, Theodore Sturgeon, Alan E. Nourse, Thomas N. Scortia, Reginald Bretnor, James Gunn, Alexei and Cory Panshin, Poul Anderson, Hal Clement, Anne McCaffrey, Gordon R. Dickson, and Jack Williamson) dealing with such subjects…

This volume provides annotations, which include publishing and price information, as well as syntheses of content, of science fiction books and other works which concern science fiction or its instruction. Part one, "The Literature," contains detailed introductory comments and bibliographic citations relevant to each of the following periods: the…

After a unit on Euclidean geometry which stresses both the development of intuition and the use of deductive methods, non-Euclidean concepts are introduced by having students read and consider science fiction stories. (SD)