A short time ago, in a classroom not so far away…
In order to learn more about life on Earth, students in UNC Asheville Associate Professor of Biology Graham Reynold’s summer course studied fictional creatures in an imaginary universe. As it turns out, the “Biology of Star Wars” class was the perfect way for students to learn about the principles of biological evolution, and even gave them the opportunity to create their own forms of life (and, of course, watch a Star Wars movie or two).
“Each class was split in half,” explained senior environmental studies major Joseph Walston. The first half of the class focused on the principles of biological evolution; the second half applied those principles to the plants, animals and microbes found in the Star Wars universe.
“The first one we examined was a skeleton of a krayt dragon,” Walston said. “He showed us a picture of a skeleton and said, ‘Tell me everything you can about the biology of the creature.’ What kind of food did it eat? How did it move? How did it evolve? What did it evolve from? Where was most of its muscle mass?”
Walston and his classmates were given the assignment every science fiction fan dreams of: they had to watch Star Wars.
“One of our assignments was to make a field guide to Star Wars, where we had to watch a full-length movie and write a report about each creature we saw, whether it be a microbe, plant or animal,” Walston said.
Walston chose Empire Strikes Back, and while he found the creatures in the film were very sophisticated, he wasn’t as impressed by the plant life. So, when Reynolds assigned a creative final project in which each student developed their own “creature feature,” Walston decided to fix that.