Science course
Could It Really Work? The Real Science of Science Fiction
7-Week Science Course
Science beside the stories
Every lesson starts from a primary or government source (NASA, NOAA, the National Park Service, the U.S. Geological Survey, the National Institutes of Health) and public-domain photographs from NASA and other U.S. agencies, then sets it beside our own short summary of the story. The films, shows and novels appear only in our own words: no stills, posters or quoted dialogue. Every lesson ends with a check your student runs: a calculation with units, a kitchen-table experiment or a real data set.
For the parent or teacher
Parent notice: families supply every film, show and book, and none is required: each lesson’s hook card gives the scene in our own words, so Grades 9–10 can do the whole course without viewing.
- Weeks 1–2. Star Trek (TV-PG; Star Trek IV, PG) and Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back (PG: science-fiction violence, a severed arm and a severed hand).
- Week 3, Dune. Studied only for its ecology and water: deserts, dunes, stillsuits, food webs and terraforming. It does not study the novel’s religion or politics, or the spice as a drug. The 2021 film is PG-13; preview it, or use the book or the hook cards.
- Week 4, The Expanse. TV-14, with strong language, violence, a brothel scene and a prisoner tortured by Earth gravity in the first episode. Preview the first episode, or use the book path or the hook cards.
- Week 5, Battlestar Galactica. TV-14 on most services (some list it TV-MA): a surprise attack that kills most of humanity, violence against civilians, sexual content, and stimulant pills in “33.” Parent preview recommended.
- Week 6, Blade Runner (1982). Optional viewing, rated R for violence, brief nudity and language. Preview it first. Grades 9–10 use the no-film path; grades 11–12 may watch with your approval. Lesson 28 covers gene editing and the He Jiankui case; Lesson 30 asks what makes a person, with a Christian view and other views presented fairly.
- Week 7, capstone. No new viewing; rewatching one scene is optional, under the same notes.
Lessons 1, 6, 11, 16, 21 and 26 carry each week’s content preview, each lesson’s parent note says what to preview that day, and every lesson has a worked answer key.
Course Big Question
Could it really work, and what would it cost?
Course introduction
Stories that bend science. Science fiction takes real science and bends it: a warp drive, a planet with two suns, a suit that drinks your sweat, a wheel in space that makes gravity. This course takes six famous stories and asks of each one: Could it really work, and what would it cost?
Real, possible or impossible. Every lesson ends with a check a student can run at a kitchen table: a calculation with units, an experiment, or a real data set from NASA, NOAA, the Park Service or the Geological Survey. Students tag each claim as real (tested and measured), possible (follows known physics but not built) or impossible as shown, and they learn to say what evidence would change their minds.
Sources, not screenshots. Each day starts with a primary or authoritative source: a NASA news release, a NOAA fact sheet, a 1977 NASA design study, a public-domain photograph from Apollo or the space station. The stories appear only in our own summaries; families supply the films and books, and every lesson works without them.
How it works. Seven weeks of about 75 minutes a day, plus up to about three hours a week of family viewing or reading, in six one-week franchise units and a capstone week. Each daily writing task has separate expectations for Grades 9–10 (Tier A), 11 (Tier B) and 12 (Tier C). Parent notes give a goal, what to say, wrong turns to watch for, and a fully worked answer key for every calculation.
Star Trek, Star Wars, Dune, The Expanse, Battlestar Galactica and Blade Runner, one week each, then a capstone week. Your student reads a source, runs a check and writes a short lab note every day, tags each claim real, possible or impossible, and ends with a five-lesson capstone science brief.
Grades 9–12, 7 weeks, one lesson a day of about 75 minutes, plus up to about three hours a week of family viewing or reading. Aligned to West Virginia Department of Education academic standards (Science, grades 9–12). Grades 9–10 can take the no-film path: every lesson works from its hook card. Blade Runner is optional.
The course opens with an active Pharos Terminal subscription.
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Pharos Terminal
Every course is included
This course is included with an active Pharos Terminal subscription, along with every other course, new courses as they’re released, a new Nexus Point every day and the parent tracker. Lessons are aligned to West Virginia Department of Education academic standards.