In this sci-fi project, students are going to make paper mache futuristic Earths or other imaginary planets as described in science fiction. This was a cross-curricular activity based off of our Literature reading of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and a unit topic in English about the environment and recycling.

Materials: 

flour/starch, round balloon, water, shallow container, old newspapers, water colors/paint

Procedures:

1) Mix 1 cup of flour into 1 cup of water until the mixture is thin and runny to make a simple glue. No need to boil.

homemade glue for sci-fi project

2) Tear/cut a lot of strips of newspaper. Strips should be about 3 inches wide; the length doesn’t really matter.

strips of newspaper for sci-fi project

READ: CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES USING TECHNOLOGY

3) Blow up and tie a round balloon.

4) Dip each strip of paper in the flour glue and wrap the strip around the balloon. Have at least two layers surrounding the balloon. Let it dry after each layer.

5) Pop the balloon when the paper mache is dry and hard enough. It will separate from the outer paper mache coating.

6) Design the planet using water colors or paints.

7) Descriptive Writing. Describe the planets using “sense words”.

student's created their own planets in sci-fi project
Sci-fi Project Sample Descriptive Writing: “Cold wave continued sweeping through the ice desert. Inside the big house made of snow, Timothy Lambardo is lying down and enjoying his coffee. He is a great bounty hunter and he works for Russia. His mission is to hunt down and kill America’s war machines. These war machines are actually the androids which are equipped with a lot of modern weapons. But now there aren’t any so he can take a rest at his homeland: planet Sagittarius A*. It used to be a wonderful planet with a lot of animals and humans who lived there. Now, it became an ice planet because of the war between Russia and America. At that time, Russia and America were the 2 strongest empire in the universe. So they began to conquer other planets in the whole universe. They trained people from the other planet to be a soldier and force them to join the army. And in the last battle, America dropped the “freeze bomb” into Tim’s wordl and made it an ice planet with the ice cap covering 80% of the planet’s surface.”

What do you think of this activity? Let us know in the comments!

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