Science Fiction Media Project

This unit of work was taught at the beginning of Year 10, to enable me to get to know the pupils and introduce a range of GCSE skills needed for the rest of the course. It is an experimental unit that needs some refinement!!

Introductory Lesson: Pupils explain and discuss possible theories of Creation

Lesson One:

Chat Show: "Do You Believe in the Supernatural?"

Lesson Two:

Lesson Three:

An episode of the X-Files is studied by the whole class.

Lesson Four:

Theories of Invasion and Aliens: a history lesson about the Cold War.

Before comparing two very different alien movies from different eras, I explained how the historical context of Science Fiction films had changed. During the Cold War the "Alien" was often cast as a Russian or German "enemy" who posed a threat to national security and the welfare of the planet. After the Cold War, alien films had to concentrate on perpetrators from outside of planet earth who were created in different shapes, textures and colours to represent a species very different from humans. Thus countries were united against this alien species.

Lesson Five:

Lesson Six:

Lesson Seven:

Lesson Eight:

Pupils go to the library.

Lesson Nine:

Pupils complete their BBC reports and redraft them for their coursework folders.

PS - I did not actually send copies of the reports to the BBC, but the pupils gained a lot of pride in the thought that I had. It brought out some very good work but sent me on a small guilt trip!


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