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Modifications: Death by Radiation

Harold Stevens

Since this past summer's institute several events have occurred that have suggested modifications to the unit I suggested in Atomic America. Foremost of these events was the publication of the unit plans by other fellows of the institute. Simpson's unit on damage done by radiation to Native American uranium miners surely deserves to be added to this unit. Gaudet's lessons dealing with the Internet reminded me that my lessons neglected this mother lode of information. The web sites on the Internet dealing with nuclear energy and particularly useful to a social studies teacher as a study of credibility of source material. The "green" sites unquestionably vilify the whole idea of nuclear energy while the "industry" sites praise it. A discussion of the value of sophisticated analysis instead of passionate ranting might be in order.

Due to my participation in the institute, I took my family to visit Trinity Site on one of the two days that it is open a year. I'd been feeling guilty for years for not taking the two hour trip down and seeing one of the great historical sites on planet earth. I suggested to my school administration that I sponsor a field trip down but they were unable to juggle grant moneys fast enough to work out the plan.

A third event causing me to wish to modify my unit was the discovery that the Atomic Museum provides training for teachers. They have all sorts of activities and suggestions for teaching all level of students about radiation. What a great resource?