Star Wars-ing: Star Wars University Passes on What They Have Learned

Star Wars Celebration is here. For the next week and a half, our blog will be focusing on Celebration – from previews to reviews. 

One of the best panel stages at Star Wars Celebration is the Star Wars University Stage.  These panels are centered around teaching and learning, which is the Nola Nerd Couple’s full-time job when they are not running this website and doing podcasts.  This stage will be on the 3rd floor in room W300.

Thursday

STEAM-y Star Wars – STEAM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math.  Art is used as the vehicle for innovation in these fields.  This panel will include a representative from NASA, an engineer/Star Wars author, another engineer who also build droids, a representative from ILMxLab, and a doctor.  As a computer science teacher, this is one of the panels that I’m looking forward to the most.  As someone who is also interested in having as diverse classes as possible, it is inspiring that the panel members are mostly women.  This allows our female padawans to see more opportunities for them when they grow up. They will discuss science in Star Wars and how it affects storytelling.  They will also discuss how to have Star Wars influence youngsters into becoming interested in STEAM fields. 12:30-1:30pm.

Road Squadron: Building a Carfighter –  Road Squadron is a group of car and Star Wars enthusiasts that have welded their passions together. Come to this panel to learn more about this organization and the interesting stories they have to tell. 2-3pm.

Food and Fandom: Star Wars Recipes – Jenn Fujikawa used to design theme parks. Now she’s a writer and she specializes in food writing.  She has a regular column on StarWars.com with Star Wars inspired recipes.  She will discuss some of these at her panel. 3:30-4:30 pm

Chuck Wendig: A Small Group of Characters Can Change the Whole Galaxy – This will be a workshop type of panel featuring the prominent Star Wars author.  His workshop will focus on building characters in your stories. 5-6pm

LGBTQ+ in the Galaxy Far, Far Away – Bloggers and Podcasters will look at how the LGBTQ+ community is represented in Star Wars. Hopefully, with more stories coming out all the time now under Disney, we will see even more representation in the future. 6:30-7:30pm

Friday

Changing Education with Star Wars – Being teachers, we are always looking for ways to bring Star Wars into our jobs.  I mean we do it every day, but we are always looking for more ways!  This panel will look at how one school was able to implement a Star Wars day in their school at every grade level. 11am-12pm.

Delilah S. Dawson: Always Shoot First: How to Star Your First Chapter with a Ban (or a pew pew pew) – Star Wars author Delilah Dawson will provide tips into the most important brick of your story building – the first chapter.  12:20-1:30pm

Timothy Zahn: 1011 Ideas in an Hour –  Anyone who has every tried to write struggles with what to write and where do story ideas come from? Long time Star Wars author timothy Zahn will take you through his process in realizing that story ideas, much like the Force, are all around you. 2-3pm

Star Wars University: Behind the Scenes in the Audiobook Recording Studio – Learn how Star Wars audiobooks are recorded in this panel. 3:30-4:30pm.

Star Wars Comics in the Classroom: Comics in the Classroom!?! Star Wars Comics at that?  Of course, they can be used.  This panel will discuss how and will even provide you with lessons to use. 5-6pm

Jason Fry: Learn from my Mistakes – Experience is the best teacher and Star Wars author will give you tips that he has learned through his mistakes to streamline your writing process without falling into the mistakes he has made. 6:30-730pm.

Saturday

Sith Lord Support Group –  This sounds like a support group for me.  I love Star Wars quite a bit, but my fandom pales in comparison next to Mrs. Nola Nerd Couple.  (I would love to see someone say to her face that she doesn’t belong in the fandom because of her gender, but I digress). I often feel like I am her support person on her quest for the next autograph, pin, toy, etc. This panel will discuss how to support your Sith Lord.  They will also discuss how to display, store, and clean your collections. 11am-12pm.

We Love Rebels – Fans of the TV show discuss their passion for Rebels.  People that don’t love Rebels, don’t make a lot of sense to me, so I’m not sure how this won’t be a crowded panel. 12:30-1:30pm

History of Droid Building – Star Wars Droid Builders have been around for quite a while and have plenty of stories to share from their adventures. 2-3pm

The Art of Japanese Star Wars Vegetable Carving – I really can’t describe this better than the title of this panel does. I do want to see the final products. 5-6pm

A Unifying Force: Keeping Fandom Safe & Welcoming – Sometimes, fans become fanatical about their fandom.  They become protective and think it’s just for them and people that look like them. This leads to bullying and exclusion.  This leads to criticism of female, queer, and/or ethnic characters.  This panel will discuss how to face this problem and ensure that Star Wars is a fandom that embraces its diversity.  In other words, this panel will discuss how we will have peace in our Star Wars galaxy. 6:30-7:30pm

Sunday

Doug Chaing Master Class – This is a workshop for artists led by Star Wars lead designer.  You can see him work or draw along with the master. 11am-12pm

John Jackson Miller: Writing for Comics: Star Wars Edition – Veteran comic creator will discuss how to write comics with a specific look at writing Star Wars comics. 12:30-1:30pm

Star Wars Musical Trivia – Test your knowledge of the music of Star Wars 2-3pm

Star Wars is Forever II (2017): A Fandom Homecoming, a New Beginning – Everything Star Wars is fair game in this panel that celebrates the fact that we have plenty of Star Wars to talk about. 3:30-4:30