Most people think of sci-fi and fantasy as a “boys’ thing.” I did not. Growing up I was a shy, southern girl who didn’t quite fit in. Reading and watching Star Wars, Star Trek, The Flash, and Dr. Who inspired me to be braver and fiercer than I thought I could be.

Beyond the obvious appeal (heroes and heroines, battles, and of course Klingons), sci-fi and fantasy pulls us into an alternate world. By default, it pushes us to use critical thinking skills. In wondering what is possible, we are actually transforming how we look at complex problems.

Sci-fi has always been a few steps ahead in imagining the possibilities and pitfalls of technology. “Six Prophetic Sci-Fi Novels That Predicted our Strange Future,” details sci-fi books that predicted (sometimes 100 years prior) inventions and events like the world wide web, space flight and moon landing, and the European union.

My senior year marked the first time I had a teacher who actually used sci-fi and fantasy to engage students. Before this class, I was like a lot of would be engineering students. I hated and struggled in English. We read mostly classics that did not inspire my imagination. I struggled to make a connection to me and my life or the things I cared about.

My senior English teacher, Mrs. Reilly, was different. She designed the year-long class around the theme of time travel (especially the later part of the year). We studied the 5 act play structure used in Macbeth and compared it to the movies “Back to the Future” and “Peggy Sue Got Married.” We also read Dean Koontz’s, Lightning, about a time traveling Nazi which completed our investigation of time travel in fiction and the different methods authors used to convince readers time travel was possible.

The class culminated in a fictional research piece. We had to write a time travel story on a time period of our choosing with the caveat that it had to be at least 10 years prior to our birth. We couldn’t rely too heavily on suspension of disbelief. Like the movies and literature we read, our theories had to be well reasoned and explained in relation to core principals of science.

For the first time in my educational career, I thoroughly enjoyed a research project. We still had to use note cards and Modern Language Association (MLA), but Wow! I got to work with the information. I got to tap into my imagination and creativity. I was enthralled with my ideas and could not wait to write them down. For the first time ever I would go to her classroom over lunch to write and talk to the teacher about my story. I threw myself into this project because the teacher finally used something that interested me.

In reflecting on the resurgence of science fiction and fantasy in our culture with the release of the new Star Wars movie, I wonder how we can use this excitement to hook students and drive their learning forward.

Beyond the example from my senior English teacher below are several ideas:
• Students writing a futuristic sci-fi piece that showcases the next technology based on their understanding of a science topic.
• Students write a fictional piece that serves as a dystopian cautionary tale should a foreseeable problem not be resolved such as climate change, imbalance of poverty, or terrorism.
• Students produce a short sci-fi or fantasy film that informs and advocates for a cause.
• Students design a fantasy world that uses elements of science and history to build that world (think of JRR Tolkien’s Lord of the Rinds, JK Rowling’s Harry Potter series, or George RR Martin’s Game of Throne series)

What might you do? Please feel free to share your ideas by commenting so that we can all learn from each other.

Leslie Eaves is a Director of Professional Learning for NC New Schools/Breakthrough Learning.