Science Fiction
Creative Project One:
Build Your Own Ecosystem
http://ctap295.ctaponline.org/~slondon
Grade Level: 12
Introduction
In this assignment you will have the opportunity
to create your own world on another planet and populate it with extraterrestrial
flora and fauna. You may construct an ecosystem that is somewhat similar
to environments found on Earth, or you may come up with a place strikingly
unlike anywhere else. But whatever kind of environment you choose
for this assignment, remember that you must make it scientifically plausible.
Science fiction writing is based upon reasonable speculation, so stick
to theoretically possible ideas. (For instance, if you choose to inhabit
a planet with creatures that eat rocks, you have to then explain how it
is physically feasible for them to consume rocks and gain nourishment from
them.) Your reader should be able to "suspend his disbelief." In
other words, you should pay heed to scientific principles and the laws
of nature in producing your ecosystem, without magic or other elements
of fantasy. Try to make your ecosystem as believable as possible
regardless of how different it is from our own world.
 Standards
Addressed
This assignment addresses the following
California State Standards for Language Arts in grades eleven and twelve:
1.0 Writing Strategies
Organization and Focus
1.1 Demonstrate an understanding of the
elements of discourse (e.g., purpose, speaker, audience, form) when completing
narrative, expository, persuasive, or descriptive writing assignments.
1.3 Structure ideas and arguments in a
sustained, persuasive, and sophisticated way and support them with precise
and relevant examples.
2.0 Writing Applications
2.1c Describe with concrete sensory details
the sights, sounds, and smells of a scene and the specific actions, movements,
gestures and feelings of the characters; use interior monologue to depict
the charactrers' feelings
2.1e Make effective use of descriptions
of appearance, images, shifting perspectives, and sensory details
Instructional
Objectives
Objective 1:
At the successful conclusion of this assignment,
students will be able to conjecture and articulate an original idea for
an extraterrestrial environment. They will be able to apply concrete sensory
details to populate this environment with hypothetical life forms that
adhere to known scientific principles.
Objective 2:
Given the conditions that make up an alien
environment, students will be able to anticipate and analyze the characteristics
fictional species would need to possess in order to survive in that ecosystem's
conditions.
Objective 3:
Given the characteristics of a sample
alien organism, students will be able to describe conjectural extraterrestrial
environments that would support its life.
Objective 4:
Students will be able to compose a four
to five page essay that balances the requirement to create compelling hypothetical
characters, animals and settings with the demand to make their ecosystem
conform to laws of science.
Background to Objectives
The purpose of this assignment is to help
students appreciate the challenges and restrictions of the genre of science
fiction. After completing this unit you will not only have a fundamental
grasp of the way "imaginary landscapes" strengthen and support speculative
fiction writing, but you'll also have a deeper understanding of the way
ecosystems work back here on earth. Whether you are studying an actual
environment or making up a fictional one, the same general rules apply
-- in short, there is a balance in nature, and each element of an environment
has an impact on the surrounding flora and fauna.
In addition to gaining insight into the
workings of science in works of science fiction, students will better appreciate
how paying attention to the laws of nature helps writers compose good speculative
fiction. Paying heed to scientific principles can help generate new ideas,
as well as making the entire imaginary world more vivid and realistic,
no matter how strange that world is.
Student
Activities
This assignment requires you to use both
the right (creative) and the left (rational) sides of your brain. You will
compose a four to five page paper that introduces the reader to a new world
full of unique flora and fauna. You will describe how these lifeforms interrelate
in a complex ecosystem, focussing on one or two primary lifeforms. Your
report will be illustrated with at least one map of your world and one
drawing of one of your lifeforms.
Introductory Activity
Like all quality writing assignments,
this one begins with cluster maps. On your paper you will, of course, be
brainstorming about the various creatures that inhabit your environment,
along with such other factors as the climate, the atmosphere, the terrain
and the impact on your ecosystem of intelligent lifeforms, if any.
You may have noticed I wrote cluster
maps. Plural. You will need at least one additional cluster map in order
to focus on the dominant lifeforms of your world. Are they animals? Are
they sentient? Do they have a social order? Do they build, farm, domesticate
animals, pollute, etc.? Do they have technology? How do your dominant lifeforms
impact their environment? Think through these questions as you create your
cluster maps and the actual paper will be better organized, more clearly
detailed and much easier to write.
Pretest
Enabling Activity(ies)
After your cluster maps have been shared
with your peers, graded by your teacher, tweaked, expanded, reorganized
and reviewed again, you're ready to begin writing. Consider starting your
paper with a framing device -- is your paper the journal of the first astronaut
to visit this world? The diary of an anthropologist, naturalist, tourist,
etc. wandering around the planet? An encyclopedia insert from some extraterrestrial
World Book? Although this is not a requirement, you may find that a framing
device enhances your appreciation for tone, purpose, audience and organization
of information as you write, as well as adding a useful literary element.
Culminating Activity
On the day this assignment is due you
will have the opportunity to share your world with other students in the
class. We will read aloud the most exemplary papers and circulate others
around the room to generate discussions about what works -- and what doesn't
-- in composing original, attention-grabbing imaginary worlds. Discussion
topics will include the following:
-
What elements in this world would serve to
enhance or give direction to the plot of a science fiction story?
-
What kinds of characters could this environment
generate, or how would it impact various kinds of characters who encountered
it?
-
Does the environment or any of its inhabitants
suggest any themes? What deeper meanings, lessons or thought- provoking
ideas could be related back to your world?
Students are strongly encouraged to take advantage
of an extra credit activity at the end of this assignment for up to ten
points. To earn these points, you must write a short story, no less than
1-1/2 pages (typed) in length, in which you borrow a creature from another
student's paper. You must describe an encounter between that creature and
inhabitants of your environment. Conversely, you may describe what would
occur if a creature from your ecosystem were to travel to an environment
created by another student in this class. While you are reading over your
peers' assignments today, you are urged to take notes, or photocopy pages
and get a start on the extra credit. It is due in no more than a week.
Assessment
Your assigment will be worth up to 50 points,
or up to 60 if you do the extra credit assignment as well. This paper will
be graded according to the following set of criteria:
1. Is the paper the proper length, neatly
typed, and checked for mechanical errors?
2. Did you include at least one drawing
and one map?
3. Does the paper present a scientifically
viable ecosystem that creatively extrapolates what kinds of flora and fauna
would florish under its environmental conditions?
4. Are your ideas original? Do they capture
the reader's imagination?
5. Have you expressed yourself clearly
and in an organized manner?
6, Does the paper include a section that
focuses on one or two dominant lifeforms? Does it convincingly explain
why those are the dominant species?
Pretest Rubrik
Web
Resources & Supplementary Materials
Introductory Activity
The following web resources contain various
materials about possible extraterrestial environments, as well as earth
environments that are so extreme that they may resemble ecosystems on other
planets. Your teacher also has several texts and CD-ROMS that address the
subject of extraterrestrial life forms available in the classroom. Some
of these materials are listed following the web pages below.
http://www.nua-tech.com/paddy/ETs.shtml
http://www.thedaily.washington.edu/archives/00W/2.16.00/N3.delaneyCon.html
http://www.msnbc.com/news/362046.asp?cp1=1
http://curriculum.calstatela.edu/courses/builders/lessons/VCR/VCRimg.html
http://astrobiology.arc.nasa.gov/roadmap/goals/g10_life_space.html
http://www.abc.net.au/quantum/scripts99/9910/astroscpt.htm
http://www.sciencebase.com/astro.html
http://www.qtm.net/~geibdan/a2000/jan/l.htm
http://foundation.terminal.cz/stelarc_pr_notes.html
http://www.astrobiology.com/NAI/fall.98.asu.html
http://researchmag.asu.edu/stories/life.html
http://www.space2000.freeserve.co.uk/abio.htm
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0965377431/affiniinc/104-6621485-0473569
http://www.jamesphogan.com/entovrse/chapter9.html
http://www.jumeaux.bc.ca/damon/plants.html
CD-ROMS
The Multimedia Encyclopedia of Science Fiction - Grolier
Leonard Nimoy Science Fiction - The Gold Collection
TEXTS
Barlowe's Guide to Extraterrestrials -- Wayne Barlowe
Codex Seraphinianus -- Franco Maria Ricci
Science Fiction The Illustrated Encyclopedia -- John Clute
Popular Mechanics, Aliens Fact or Fantasy? - July 1999
Final Powerpoint Presentation
Reseda High School
Los Angeles Unified School
District C
18230 Kittridge Street
Reseda, CA 91335
Stephen London, system3.0@juno.com
Last Revised: 6/23/2001 |
