Mercurius
Legend
I teach at small private high school and am planning on offering a Worldbuilding class next year for Seniors and maybe Juniors (which I'll probably call World Making). The idea is that it would be an artistic and academic expression of their education, a way to engage holistic thinking and imagination through a variety of lenses, all towards creating a living, imaginary world or community, from an entire new planet or cosmos to a made-up village or commune in our own world.
I'm still ironing out specifics, which is why I'm writing this post. The class will most likely be two days a week, 1 to 1.5 hours per class, for 10 or 11 weeks (we go by a trimester system), which means a total of 20-30ish hours of class time. Each student would create a portfolio, which would include a few elements:
1) A map or diagram, whether two- or three-dimensional (e.g. a painted map, computer map, a papier maiche globe, etc).
2) A document describing the world and its major elements.
3) An artistic piece of the student's choosing that depicts the world and/or a culture within the world. This could be a painting, a sculpture, even a performance piece such as a song, drama skit, animation, a short story, etc.
I am also thinking of condensing the three into two, so that a student could, for example, paint a map and write an expository short story, although I would still want to see the "blueprint" of the world informing the story's exposition.
A unique feature of this class is that it is both art, humanities, and science, depending upon which angle the individual student wants to approach it from. Each student would choose at least two "lenses" or disciplines to focus on, such as geography, mythology, politics, economics, biology, zoology, literature, etc. While the student would come up with a general sketch of the world or community they are creating, they would focus on two or three areas. This would essentially be a guided independent project: I would provide an orienting principle in the class, with discussions and activities that try to inspire them, and they would research and develop the specifics of the world.
I would bring to them examples of worldbuilding in movies, books, and art, and invite the students to bring in their own examples. I would also include rpg-like activities such as Dawn of Worlds.
Suffice it to say, I am very excited about this! Why am I sharing this with you? Aside from simply for the sake of sharing, I'm looking for ideas, especially what sort of territory you think I might need to cover, links, books, etc. I have some resources already, but I wanted to leave it open rather than listing them.
So, given the time frame involved (10-11 weeks) and total hours of class time (20-30 hours), what do you think is the best way to structure and "frame" the work the students would be doing?
I'm still ironing out specifics, which is why I'm writing this post. The class will most likely be two days a week, 1 to 1.5 hours per class, for 10 or 11 weeks (we go by a trimester system), which means a total of 20-30ish hours of class time. Each student would create a portfolio, which would include a few elements:
1) A map or diagram, whether two- or three-dimensional (e.g. a painted map, computer map, a papier maiche globe, etc).
2) A document describing the world and its major elements.
3) An artistic piece of the student's choosing that depicts the world and/or a culture within the world. This could be a painting, a sculpture, even a performance piece such as a song, drama skit, animation, a short story, etc.
I am also thinking of condensing the three into two, so that a student could, for example, paint a map and write an expository short story, although I would still want to see the "blueprint" of the world informing the story's exposition.
A unique feature of this class is that it is both art, humanities, and science, depending upon which angle the individual student wants to approach it from. Each student would choose at least two "lenses" or disciplines to focus on, such as geography, mythology, politics, economics, biology, zoology, literature, etc. While the student would come up with a general sketch of the world or community they are creating, they would focus on two or three areas. This would essentially be a guided independent project: I would provide an orienting principle in the class, with discussions and activities that try to inspire them, and they would research and develop the specifics of the world.
I would bring to them examples of worldbuilding in movies, books, and art, and invite the students to bring in their own examples. I would also include rpg-like activities such as Dawn of Worlds.
Suffice it to say, I am very excited about this! Why am I sharing this with you? Aside from simply for the sake of sharing, I'm looking for ideas, especially what sort of territory you think I might need to cover, links, books, etc. I have some resources already, but I wanted to leave it open rather than listing them.
So, given the time frame involved (10-11 weeks) and total hours of class time (20-30 hours), what do you think is the best way to structure and "frame" the work the students would be doing?
