Life in the Future

http://edweb.sdsu.edu/courses/edtec596/Units/put.the.URL.here.html

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Introduction

What is life going to be like in 200 years? How are people/families going to differ from today's standards. We're going to look at how T.V., Literature, and the Movie industry has portrayed the future and how these portrayals differ from the way we live today. Let's hop in our time machine and head towards the future.

The Task

To write several short essays based on how the future is portrayed in society and how that differs from the way we live today.
To create our own future society, focusing on people and their relationship with others.

Resources

The resources that will be utilized for this lesson are: a T.V. and V.C.R and materials for creating a visual future world.

The Process

1. Do a webbing exercise on the board based on the topic: T.V./Movies/Books based on the future.
2. Discuss these topics. What are the differences between what we see in these future portrayals and real life as we know it?
3. Bring in a video tape of the Jetson's, Star Trek, or anything that depicts the future on video. This will give the students a visual of what they are to discuss in their essays.
4. Students are to pick a t.v. show, movie, and a book that demonstrates a future society and write a comparison between their society and our society.
5. Make sure these questions are answered in your comparison:

Do you think that this is an accurate portrayal of the future.
Would you rather live then or now?
What would you change about both to make them better?
What was the difference between families now and then?
What similar values are apparent within both societies.

5. In groups, create your own future society addressing these topics:

Family
Government
Architecture
Technology

It's possible that the learning advice would flow best if merged in with the process description. If you're providing a lot of advice, or if the data gathering and analysis process has more than a few steps, it's best to break Learning Advice out to a separate section.

Evaluation

Individual work - Each write-up is worth 25 points.
Group work - Completed project is worth 100 points, to be graded as a group and not individually.

Conclusion

This lesson will give them a sense of family values based on society on screen and in real life. They will be asked to think critically by comparing two time frames and their values.

On to Lesson

Last updated May 18, 1996. Return to the

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