http://presidentjackson.no-ip.org/knavelacademy
Dal Timgar
Well, your link doesn’t work, but I’d say “yes” to the question.
At the very least, good science fiction can have characters using science to overcome problems in a manner that is descriptive and easy to visualize. There have been several series of books based on “Tom Swift”, “Tom Swift jr.” and “Danny Dunn” each about a plucky young man using all kinds of gadgets and whatnot. The science was often pretty shaky, but the ideas at least seemed clear enough.
It seems to be a dead link
But I’m with Bryan; yes it can.
Orwell’s 1984 could be described as SF (Speculative) - I see no reason why that book couldn’t be used to promote literacy and to provoke discussion on political structures.
Larry Niven (One of my favourite SF authors) deals with a lot of cross-cultural issues in his works (sure, they aren’t necessarily human cultures, but again it’s a starting point).
Sure. I used it all the time as an English teacher, and often as a psychology instructor. Is there something more specific than yes or no that interests you?
I had to read a book called Space and the American Imagination for a class on American Space Policy. Several of the introductory chapters discuss science fiction authors that anticipated the technologies we use today like space stations, exploratory robot probes, and satellites. Arthur C. Clarke of 2001: A Space Odyssey fame thought up geostationary satellites years before we could even get a rocket into space.
What I love about science fiction is that some of the things we dream up today can be realities tomorrow. Kids growing up with images of cloned dinosaurs, holodecks, and interstellar travel may just decide they want a career that lets them be a part of the future.
Incidentally, one of the courses in my high school is a science fiction class. I took it last year. It was a lot of fun. I did more writing in it than I did in my creative writing class, and we learned a lot of history as we studied the origins of legends like vampires, sea monsters, etc…
The teacher of the course is pushing for a Science Fiction 2, an extension of the first course. No luck so far. I’m actually surprised our school tolerates Sci Fi 1 considering how conservative the administration is. I’m glad that they do, however. Nearly everyone loves the course.
Unless you’re asking if schools are allowed to use science fiction (yes they are), the answer to this question will be a matter of opinion. I’ll move this thread to IMHO.
Why not? If it is scientifically sound SF. No *Battlestar Galactica * ships whooshing by and making sounds in space. * Forever War *, for example, has time dilation as part of the plot. * Starship Troopers * could be used in a debate about the rights and duties of citizenship - where are the limits?
BTW, I have a copy of the * Amazing * that had your namesake in it. Liked the story, if maybe not hard SF.
In my high school physics class the textbook included a chapter (“Close Reasoning”) from the Fred Hoyle novel The Black Cloud as an example of scientific thinking and calculation, and it was pretty effective. From observations on astronomical photographs, the astronomers are able to figure out how fast the cloud is travelling towards the earth (the calculations are given in the text – Hoyle was an astronomer, after all). They also speculate and argue about the titular cloud’s intent and how to communicate with it. Great and effective stuff.
Truthfully, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? should be taught in schools. Just my opinion. 
Well, I used to use sci-fi all the time as examples in lectures I was giving -
and the university ran a extra-mural course last year on “The Philosophy of Star Trek” - it was quite interesting, too - though the lecturer talked about Plato and Socrates more than he did about Picard and Scotty.
Actually, wa-a-ay back in the 70’s, my elementary school reading book had the riddle game chapter from The Hobbit in it. That led to me reading the entire book (my uncle had given it to me for Christmas a year or two before), which led to The Lord Of the Rings, and the rest is history.
I’d say SF can certainly be used for educational purposes. Books such as Farenheit 451, 1984, and even Logan’s Run can be used to look at the way we envisioned the future versus what the future has become. I’m not a sociologist, but I could see a fascinating class being put together along those lines. If you want to take a hard science tack, take a look at the way nearby planets were depicted in early SF and the difference between that and what we know now. I seem to remember Asimov grumbling about reality overtaking his fiction.
CJ
My HS Classes used quite a bit of SF, including (from those I can recall):
The Illustrated Man
The Martian Chronicles
Something Wicked This Way Comes [sub](Someone was a Bradbury fan, apparently)[/sub]
2001
Childhood’s End
I, Robot
A Canticle for Leibowitz[sub]read this[/sub]
1984
Stranger in a Strange Land
Planet of the Apes (the original Pierre Boule novel)
La Invención de Morel (Argentine fantasy writer Bioy Cásares)
Good literature with a point is good literature with a point, regardless of genre idiom – and reading and discussing GLWAP is an important part of education. You can get social and technological discussions going…
– IS Western society becoming so fat, lazy and apathetic that it wouldn’t make a difference if apes took it over, and a truly free man is a dangerous wild beast?
– Considering that most of the easily-accessible mineral resources have been converted into goods, constructions and garbage, what would a humanity thrown back to pre-industrial life by WW3 require to restart the renaissance from scavenging our ruins?
– Why haven’t we criscrossed the Solar System with manned missions by now? Should we seek to do so? Would the space colonization model mentioned by _________ work?
– Is having thought-provoking literature displaced from bookshelves by feel-good fluff and titillating scandalmongering, any better than getting it banned and burned?
– In this story, the orbital maneuver performed to rescue the crippled module involves the pursuing shuttle firing braking thrusters: explain the physical principles involved.
– How many of you selected this book by Piers Anthony for your report because of the juvenile pun in its title?
jrd
Harvard’s Science Library (Harvard’s, fer cryin’ out loud!) had an exhibit on The Science of Star Trek a couple of years back. I don’t know if it owed anything besides the title to Laurence Krauss’ book, because I don’t think they gave him any credit.
At my college, one of the freshman seminars offered is “Better Living Through Science Fiction.” I took it, and it was quite interesting. Most of the literature we read dealt with gender and race, and we basically applied it to life (or rather, college life, since this school is obsessed with ethnic diversity and gender issues… there’s no escaping it, no matter which classes you take). We even wrote our own sci-fi stories near the end of the semester dealing with various issues (and a lot of the stories were inspired by Sept. 11). So sci-fi IS being used for education.
Ringworld was allowed as a project in my advanced (3rd semester) physics in my high school - so long as the people who chose it did the calculations, and figured out whether it could or would work & why or why not.
I did something else - so the details are a bit fuzzy.
That Philosophy class I went to - the lecturer seemed obsessed with why a Star Trek style “transporter” wasn’t viable - Pity, though, as I always wanted one of those - I hate flying!!!
Och. I learned how to reknit my dilithium crystals by watching Star Trek.
Interesting!! What did you knit with them??