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Published
2025-01-24 — Updated on 2025-07-24
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Copyright (c) 2025 Luke Gliddon
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Dispatches from the Future
Speculative Fiction and Climate Modeling in the Secondary Science Classroom
Luke Gliddon
Coon Rapids High School
DOI: https://doi.org/10.24926/cle.v3i1.6313
Keywords: computer modeling, ecological civilization, future thinking, speculative fiction, imagination
Abstract
Students in traditional education settings are rarely engaged in the vital act of imagining. Instead, they are bombarded with data about the climate crisis that project a degraded and diminished future as a foregone conclusion. Here, I reflect on my experiences using published media, highly accessible climate modeling, and a mental time travel project to help students practice inhabiting better futures in a science-backed way. These activities are sequenced over at least five days. Considerations for various educational settings are included.
