Students engaged in the essential question: What are our ethical responsibilities as scientists when examining the nature of nuclear energy?
Question Formulation Technique (QFT)
Students were presented with various images, including those of mushroom clouds from nuclear testing in the Southwest as well as the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, plumes of smoke from the 2023 train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, and plumes of ash and debris from the implosion of the Crawford Coal Plant in the Little Village neighborhood of Chicago. Through these images, students wrote as many questions as they could within a short time frame, generating questions based on both observations and inferences about what these plumes could be from. Each group shared their questions, and then students worked in their groups to sort their questions into open vs. closed questions as a way to narrow down their questions to possible discussion and inquiry questions.
The goal of our discussion after this opening activity was to make connections between each of the images, connections that were specifically about who is harmed/who is doing the harming, who holds power and made decisions about these catastrophic events, what are the consequences of these events, and connections to concepts like justice and exploitation.
Big Paper/Write Around
After the QFT, the teacher moved on to sharing narratives of Downwinder and Diné experiences in an activity called Big Paper or Write Around. The quotes from these narratives were pasted on large poster paper, and students were instructed to circle powerful words they notice, to write questions about what the text says (including clarifying or vocabulary questions), and to write what the passages made them think about and feel.
The intention was for students to connect with the human/environmental impact of nuclear energy first before delving into the science of nuclear energy so that they would have a different lens than the students did last year when the unit began with resources about the mechanics of nuclear energy production.
