By Captain Pyke | June 4, 2010 - 10:40 pm

A brand new course is being offered at the University of Texas, El Paso featuring our favorite SciFi series. Called "Thinking Boldly with Star Trek", the course is meant to help first-year students strengthen their academic talents through critical thinking. It also appears that there will be episode viewing as part of the course curriculum. Can we sign up just this course?

UTEP is the perfect venue for the new Trek curriculum since the Great Bird of the Galaxy, Gene Roddenberry was an El Paso native. In fact, the El Paso Independent School District, in 2001, recognized Roddenberry’s contribution to education by naming its planetarium in his honor.

The course is taught by Nancy Hill, assistant director for technical services at UTEP's University Library. “In our 1301 [University Studies: Seminar in Critical Inquiry] courses, the goal is to help entering students acquire or sharpen critical thinking and learning skills,” Hill said. “Anything that’s fun is nonthreatening to learners, and Star Trek really fits the bill. Like any good epic, it has a very clear moral and ethical tone. When the original Star Trek debuted in 1966, it featured the first multicultural cast in television history. Minority and female characters have always been figures of authority on Star Trek, and each series promotes the idea that it’s better to use intellect and reason, rather than weapons, to solve problems. Gene Roddenberry, Star Trek’s creator, once said: ‘This isn’t a show about outer space. It’s about us.’”

Hill uses Star Trek as a vehicle to launch lively discussions about complex social, scientific and philosophical questions. This year, her course will focus on four main themes: time, space, machines and monsters. In addition to viewing relevant Star Trek episodes, students will read classic science fiction works, including Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein; Isaac Asimov’s I, Robot; R.J. Tilley’s “Willie’s Blues” and Tom Godwin’s “The Cold Equations.” Hill also requires students to write a research paper.

“The value of science fiction and fantasy is that you get out of your zone and look at ideas from a different, more objective point of view,” Hill said. “There’s been a tremendous amount of scholarly writing about Star Trek, so it’s not difficult for students to find academic material. In this way, they learn about the broader science fiction genre. I also use the series to talk about literary traditions such as the role of storytelling in a culture, whether it’s an ethnic group or, as in Star Trek, a species. Storytelling defines who we are.”

Hill, who became a Star Trek fan in college, isn’t fazed by those UTEP students who enroll in her course without knowing anything about the series.

“In the first week of class, I assign everyone to teams and ask each team to give an overview of one of the six Star Trek series (Star Trek, Star Trek: The Animated Series, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Voyager and Star Trek: Enterprise). It’s a good opportunity to teach students how to work effectively in groups, and it also hones their research and presentation skills,” Hill said.

“My secret goal is to convert all of them to become über-Trekkies,” joked Hill, pointing to the full-sized poster—“Everything I Need to Know in Life I Learned from Star Trek”—on her office wall.

Hill uses Star Trek as a vehicle to launch lively discussions about complex social, scientific and philosophical questions. This year, her course will focus on four main themes: time, space, machines and monsters. In addition to viewing relevant Star Trek episodes, students will read classic science fiction works, including Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein; Isaac Asimov’s I, Robot; R.J. Tilley’s “Willie’s Blues” and Tom Godwin’s “The Cold Equations.” Hill also requires students to write a research paper.

“The value of science fiction and fantasy is that you get out of your zone and look at ideas from a different, more objective point of view,” Hill said. “There’s been a tremendous amount of scholarly writing about Star Trek, so it’s not difficult for students to find academic material. In this way, they learn about the broader science fiction genre. I also use the series to talk about literary traditions such as the role of storytelling in a culture, whether it’s an ethnic group or, as in Star Trek, a species. Storytelling defines who we are.”

Hill, who became a Star Trek fan in college, isn’t fazed by those UTEP students who enroll in her course without knowing anything about the series.

“In the first week of class, I assign everyone to teams and ask each team to give an overview of one of the six Star Trek series (Star Trek, Star Trek: The Animated Series, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Voyager and Star Trek: Enterprise). It’s a good opportunity to teach students how to work effectively in groups, and it also hones their research and presentation skills,” Hill said.

“My secret goal is to convert all of them to become über-Trekkies,” joked Hill, pointing to the full-sized poster—“Everything I Need to Know in Life I Learned from Star Trek”—on her office wall.

(info source News @ UTEP)