Themepark

exploration
Future

"The world changes so quickly it's hard to keep up. New inventions and innovations alter the way we live. People's values, attitudes, and beliefs are changing. And the pace of change keeps accelerating, making it difficult to prepare for tomorrow.

By studying the future, people can better anticipate what lies ahead. More importantly, they can actively decide how they will live in the future, by making choices today and realizing the consequences of their decisions.

The future doesn't just happen: People create it through their action--or inaction--today."

World Future Society

 

Places To Go    People To See    Things To Do      Teacher Resources    Bibliography

Places To Go

BBC's The Essential Guide to the 21rst Century
This site has opinions about the future from experts from all over the world. Each gives a personal forecast of how our lives might be affected by far reaching changes in society.
Biosphere 2
Visit the Biosphere 2 ecological research project. One of its objectives was to test the feasibility of a self-sustaining space colony. See what they found out.
Madeleine l’Engle
Visit the world of A Wrinkle in Time for a glimpse of Madeleine l’Engle’s views about the future.
MyFuture.com
Visit the federal government and get their advice on the future. They have developed a comprehensive website with information about careers, college, and job opportunities. It has information about average salaries for job, employment trends, and how to interview for a job. It also offers advice for taking college-bound tests such as the SAT.
Study Abroad
Travel to other countries to see if your future might lie in studying abroad.
U.S. Population Projections
Visit the Census Bureau and view their projections for population data of the future. You can find these projections for each state. While you’re looking at population data, check out the World Population Clock to see the current numbers.
The World of Stephen Hawking
PBS site looks at the life and work of the brilliant theoretical physicist.

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People To See

Great Thinkers and Visionaries
According to the site's author, this is a list of people "whose ideas on how and where the world is--and should be--evolving, may be of interest to those who want to understand the frontier of human thought." Although not all of the "visionaries" listed are alive, each has a brief biographical description, with links, where possible, to relevant web pages.
Buck Rogers
Visit with Buck Rogers. He was the star of a newspaper comic strip and a series of comic books in the 1920s and 1930s called Buck Rogers of the 25 th Century. He also had his own radio show in the 1930s and 40s. Buck was a World War I veteran who was overcome by radioactive gas and mysteriously transported to the future.
Flash Gordon
Meet Flash Gordon. He rivaled Buck Rogers in having adventures in the future. Evaluate his technology in terms of what we really have today. How many of his futuristic gizmos really came to pass?
Isaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov is esteemed as one of the finest writers of science fiction and scientific fact in the twentieth century. 
Star Trek
Meet Star Trek characters from all incarnations of this popular show about life in the 24th century. There's Captain Kirk, Spock, Captain Picard, and many, many more.
TV.com: The Jetsons
Meet George Jetson!... His boy Elroy!... Daughter Judy!... Jane, his wife! Reacquaint yourself with the Jetson family who live an exciting life in the future.

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Things To Do

Endangered Animals
Uncover worldwide endangered animals and learn how to take steps in insure their survival for the future. According to this website, there are currently 143 species of birds that are endangered and 120 species of mammals.
ExploraVision
ExploraVision is a competition for students of all interest, skill, and ability levels in grades K-12. The purpose of the competition is to encourage students to combine their imaginations with the tools of science to create and explore a vision of a future technology.
Projections: A Futurist at the Movies
Explore how the future of society and technology are depicted on film. 
Space Future
Find out when or if space travel might become available to the average person looking to have an out of this world vacation experience.
Transportation Futuristics
Find out about transportation possibilities for the 21 st century such as amphibious recreational vehicles and personal flying machines.
United Nations: World Population Trends
20% of the world's population currently lives in Australia, New Zealand, Europe, Japan, and North America. The remaining 80% live in the countries of Africa, Asia, Oceania, Latin America, and the Caribbean. For the future, it is projected that between 1999 and 2015, developing countries will contribute to 98% of the population growth for the world.
World Future Society
Explore this website which acts as a clearinghouse for ideas about the future.

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Teacher Resources

21st Century Skills: Will Our Students Be Prepared?
A look at 6 key elements for learning in the 21st century.
Future of the Learning Space
For many people, the public image of higher education is the classroom: faculty talking, with students intently listening and taking notes.
Mission: Define Your Future
An educational program for grades 6–12 that challenges students to relate practical math and science skills to real-world experiences in engineering. Created by Scholastic and Northrop Grumman, this program will sharpen your students’
World of 7 Billion: Teacher Resources
Teaching about world population, lesson plans and classroom activities. Teacher resources for environmental and social trends of present society.
Lesson Plans/Webquests

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Bibliography

  • Berry, Adrian. The Next 500 Years: Life in the Coming Millennium. Gramercy, 1999.
  • Cetron, Marvin and Owen Davies. Probable Tomorrows: How Science and Technology Will Transform Our Lives in the Next Twenty Years. St. Martins Press, 1997.
  • Cochrane, Peter. Tips for Time Travelers. McGraw-Hill, 1998.
  • Kaku, Michio. Visions: How Science Will Revolutionize the 21st Century. Bantam Books, 1998.
  • King, Larry and Pat Piper. Future Talk: Conversations About Tomorrow With Today's Most Provocative Personalities. HarperCollins, 1999.
  • Knoke, William. Bold New World: The Essential Road Map to the Twenty-First Century. Kodansha International, 1997.
  • Pearson, Ian. The MacMillan Atlas of the Future. Hungry Minds, 1998.
  • Pearson, Ian and Chris Winter. Where's It Going? Thames & Hudson, 2000.
  • Wieners, Brad and David Pescovitz. Reality Check. Hardwired, 1996.
  • Zey, Michael G. The Future Factor: The Five Forces Transforming Our Lives and Shaping Human Destiny. McGraw-Hill, 2000.