Star Trek inspired an entire generation of kids who later grew up to become scientists. We don't have inspirational science shows for today's kids. In this class we will take a deep dive into Star Trek and their technologies and lives. We will discuss these technologies and the possibilities if these will ever become reality.

We will discuss everything from warp speed and time travel to replicators and artificial intelligence. Using an age appropriate approach, we will explore current progress in AI, quantum mechanics and economics and discuss how far we are from the Star Trek future.

My goal with this class is to inspire the students to become future scientists!

Course Outline

Day 1: We'll introduce Star Trek, the show, the characters, their moneyless lives, alien planets and their spaceships. We will focus on alien and alien planets. Are there other inhabitable planets with intelligent lives out there? We'll take a look at current science and what it tells us.

Day 2: Today we will discuss warp speed, wormholes and time travel. In Star Trek the crew use warp speed to travel between planets. Sometimes they use wormholes to travel between distance locations. And quite a few times, the crew is thrown back in time. Is this just pure fiction? Not according to Einstein!

Day 3: We will get to know Commander Data (The Next Generation) and The Doctor (Voyager) - two artificial lifeforms. How far are we from that level of artificial intelligence?

Day 4: Parallel universes - In Star Trek Discovery the crew is thrown to a parallel universe. Many scientist believe quantum mechanics tells us that parallel universes exist. We will take a deeper dive and explore those possibilities.

Day 5: Imagine a life without money or "work for money". That is the life of people in the Star Trek universe. Will we ever evolve our world into a world without money, no poverty and a planet full of happy people?