I had been sitting at my desk for hours, looking through evidence files, searching for a connection. If you asked me how long I have been working on this case for, I couldn’t tell you. Every day blends together. I can’t remember the last time I had a full night of sleep. Every time I close my eyes, I see him, laughing at me. For every second that I’m not searching, he gets two seconds ahead. Like one long game of cat and mouse, except I’m blindfolded and my shoelaces are tied together.

This is the first paragraph from a new short story I created called Darwin. I created this story as part of my new humanities project, Rise of the Frankenstuffies. In this project, we learned about science fiction. The driving question was “How can sci-fi/fantasy fiction help us imagine a different future?” We learned this through a novel study, a short story that we created, and a movie trailer based on our story.

Throughout the project, read and reflected on the book Leviathan by Scott Westerfield. The book was an interesting look into science fiction, but it was not the kind of book that I enjoy to read.

At the start of the project we collected stuffed animals we then traded body parts to create what we called frankenstuffies. This is what mine looked like:

We then worked on developing our character. This was a lot of fun, and I really went all in when it came to details about the character’s history. I decided to make him an international criminal, and made a rap sheet to showcase his character. This is my rap sheet:

When we were done creating our characters, we storyboarded our science fiction short stories and wrote about our character’s motivations. Once we had a solid plan, we wrote our stories. I decided to make a story with a darker tone. I had a lot of fun coming up with my plan and writing my story. I have always enjoyed creative writing, so this was a really fun assignment for me. Click here to read my story.

When we finished with our stories, we were tasked with creating movie trailers based on our stories. I was leaving on vacation the next day, so I had one night to complete my trailer. I worked hard, playing around with green screens and editing. Fortunately, I was able to finish my trailer, and create a product that I am happy with.

In my MPoL this year, I wrote that I my goal was to enjoy my learning, under the assumption that when I enjoy myself, I create a better final product. This project, I really worked on having a good time. Thankfully, this was a really fun project I got to read a new book and make a fun movie trailer with my movie making skills. My favourite part of the project was hands down writing the short story. I had a great time writing it, and without even thinking, I banged out a 3,000 word story which I am very proud of. I think that I am well on my way to completing my goal, and I think that it is working.

This project helped me learn more about science fiction, while giving me an opportunity to write a story. To answer the driving question; science fiction is a great way to reflect of current or past issues while showing us a world different from our own. Science fiction is very engrossing as it shows us a world similar to our own, but with a unique twist. It is fun to glimpse into a new reality created by the author.