 | |
| Vol. 18, No. 17 | Jan. 21, 1999 |
| |
| Vol. 18, No. 17 | Jan. 21, 1999 |
Science fiction is the subject of a Winter Session class, but "it is not a course about spaceships, gadgets, ray guns or bug-eyed monsters," according to Daniel Shade, individual and family studies.
Instead, the three-credit course entitled "Human Development Through the Arts" is about development across the lifespan. It is also about people and their ability to ask the question, "What if?" Science fiction literature, with its ability to pit human beings against the worst possible odds, Shade said, allows us to foresee what people will do in these types of situations.
Science fiction-its literature and films-is a serious subject for Shade, a self-described "science fiction fanatic." His office is full of books and posters on his favorite literature genre, and they surround his computer that holds a database listing more than 2,000 award-winning works in science fiction. Shade also maintains an annotated short story database where the stories are matched with a particular topic such as marriage, parenting or death, for use in the course.
Shade said he loves to teach the popular course, which began as an experimental offering in 1989, because it allows him to mix his two loves, science fiction and human development. "My heart and soul is with the University, but when I am done at UD, I fill what time I have left with science fiction," he said. "The best of both worlds is when I can combine the two."
In addition to Winter Session, the science fiction course will be taught again this spring semester.
For the course, students read mainly short science fiction stories, ranging in length from 55 to 15,000 words and these stories are paired with research articles on the human condition. In addition to the science fiction aspect, these stories have such human development themes as marriage, children rearing, love and death. Examples of these short stories include "The Underdweller" by William P. Molan, "Light of Other Days," by Bob Shan, and "The Ugly Little Boy" by Isaac Asimov. The current research articles linked to the science fiction stories, he said, provide the course with newly updated topics each time it is offered.
As part of the course requirements, the students must write their own short stories of varying lengths. The stories must deal with timely issues related to human development and are judged by Shade, with a published short story anthology awarded to the first-, second- and third-place student winner in each word-length category. Each student also searches the web for information on a particular author and then the student gives a presentation on that writer when the story is covered in class. According to Shade, this adds insight into each author's stories.
Shade said he prefers the three-hour Winter Session class format because it enables him to show longer movie clips. Shade often screens television episodes of The Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits, as well as classic shows from the past and current Star Trek television series.
Although this course is classified as a human development course, it also holds interest for other majors, especially those in English, psychology and education, he said.
"Fiction is the most purposeful form of writing, because it can grab you and motivate you in a way that actual accounts can't," Shade said. "I use the power of fiction to teach students about human development."
When he is not exploring the worlds of science fiction, Shade is director of the Technology and Early Childhood (TECH) Program. His research concentration is in computers and video games and their relation to child development.
"The research keeps me interested and charged," he said.
-Gail E. Walford
Photo by Jack Buxbaum
