Fresh off of watching the season finale of “Fringe” last Friday, I happened upon an amazing discovery: FOX and the Science Olympiad have teamed up to create lesson plans to help students explore the real science behind some of the show’s plot devices. Magnetism, combustion, electromagnetism, protein modeling, and more are covered using incidents investigated by the Fringe Division in seasons 2-4.
The lesson plans are geared toward students in grades 9-12 and only use the show as a starting point — the real learning takes place with hands-on activities and discussions. Relevant Science Olympiad competitions are also referenced to give teachers a clear path to include more project-based learning in their curriculum.
Sadly, there are no instruction sheets for building portals to alternate universes, no recipe for cooking up your own batch of stasis-inducing “amber,” or brain scanning of any sort in these lessons. There is a chance, however, for a few cunning teachers and parents to slip some science fiction into the classroom and snag some new fans for the genre. Maybe you’ll even get to re-watch a few episodes with your kids to “help” with homework.
The Science of Fringe on FOX’s website (cool videos, & graphics).
The Science of Fringe on Science Olympiad website (just the facts, ma’am).
Image: Screencap of a clip on FOX’s The Science of Fringe website.
