The following is a checklist of social studies concepts and ideas that need to be included (incorporated) into your story.
Before you begin writing this story, you will first need to develop an idea of how you are going to treat each of the following concepts. Write a brief paragraph describing how you are going to develop each of these concepts. Each paragraph should be 80-100 words.
Cultural Elements:
- Gender Roles – expected roles and behaviors for male/female/other genders if developed for your story
- Cultural diffusion – the movement of an idea from one place to another, e.g. from earth to a different planet – or from one time period to another.
- Language and communication – what are the languages and/or other methods of communication; include problems of communication
- Ethnicity – what are the characteristics of earthly and alien ethnic groups? What is the relationship among the various ethnic groups?
Geographic/Demographic Elements:
- Landforms and physical features of the planet – the setting of your story – how do these affect daily activities of the people?
- Climate and weather – how do these affect daily activities?
- Crops, food supplies, diet- What is consumed and where and how is it produced? Include water or other necessary items.
- General morbidity and mortality – What diseases are there, what is the average life span of males – of females, what percentages of the population are in which age groups?
Political elements:
- Colonialism – is this place or planet a colony of somewhere else? Imperialism – is this place a part of a larger imperial empire?