Flying Cars

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Overview
Resources
Evaluations
Comments

Overview

Description:

Visitors "travel through time" with a host playing several characters: from the Future, 1900, 1945 and 1999. Visitors answer questions in a quiz about other people's predictions of future technology, and then are invited to make their own predictions.

Objectives

Big Idea:

The future is unpredictable. People in the past have made wild and crazy predictions - many inaccurate - but many came true. Some of the crazy predictions about the future of nanotechnology may come true as well.

Learning goals:

Visitors will consider potential implications of nanotechnology. (Where will nano go?)

NISE Net Content Map:

Nanoscience, nanotechnology, and nanoengineering lead to new knowledge and innovations that weren't possible before.

Nanotechnologies have costs, risks, and benefits that affect our lives in ways we cannot always predict.

Universal design:

Provide multiple entry points and multiple ways of engagement

Credits

Developed for the NISE Network with funding from the National Science Foundation under Award Numbers 0532536 and 0940143. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this product are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Foundation.

Owning institution:

Oregon Museum of Science and Industry

Checklist

Scientist reviewed? check_reviewed

Peer reviewed? check_reviewed

Visitor evaluation? check_reviewed

Nano Topics

Society, policy, and economics

Audience

11 and up

Permissions

Creative Commons
Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike

Resources

Download all files (ZIP)

Files:

Flying Cars Lesson Plan

Flying Cars Sound Effect

Flying Cars Presentation

Links:

Flying Cars Training Video

See FAQ #10 to learn more about downloading NISE Net video

Video:

Evaluations

Flying Cars demo evaluations

Visitors see wacky characters, and answer questions in a quiz about predictions of the future. Read more

Comments

Nike releases Back to Future shoe

Submitted by Anders Liljeholm on Fri, 09/23/2011 - 12:49.

It was recently announced that Nike was selling copies of the self-tying shoe from Back to the Future part 2. As it turns out, those shoes are not in fact self-tying. They just look a lot like the one from the movie, complete with blinking lights.

https://www.nikemedia.com/en/category/nike_mag_1/feature_archive/2011/9/...

If they had released a self-tying shoe, I was thinking about food pills or force fields as a sci-fi invention that doesn't exist yet.

Silver coat

Submitted by Anders Liljeholm on Wed, 05/18/2011 - 11:42.

If you want your own metallic coat, you can get one here:
http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/KAREWEAR-Coat-8WY74

Seinfeld T-shirts are here:
http://www.t-shirts.com/seinfeld-logo-tshirt.html

Plastic hats are cheap here:
http://www.centurynovelty.com/detail_290_014-66820.html?reasonAdded=Item...

And bowler hats as well:
http://www.centurynovelty.com/detail_290_014-66999.html?reasonAdded=Item...

Ray Kurzweil isn't always right

Submitted by Anders Liljeholm on Mon, 11/29/2010 - 16:00.

As you might have figured out in the demonstration, Ray Kurzweil's predictions aren't always true.

There's a good story about him and his predictions here:
http://spectrum.ieee.org/computing/software/ray-kurzweils-slippery-futur...

Flying hats

Submitted by Anders Liljeholm on Thu, 11/05/2009 - 13:44.

I discovered recently that if I throw my hat in the air as I'm hiding behind the cart during the costume change, it gets a laugh. I think it's a good addition to the presentation.