My name is Andy Andrews and I work at the Los Alamos National Laboratory.
Currently, I am working on a curriculum development project titled as the
subject above. By the end of the summer, we plan on having 300 copies of
this curriculum kit available for free distribution for beta testing.
Below, I will describe the curriculum and the planned kit. If you are
interested in participating in the Beta test (you will be expected to
complete a summative evaluation questionnaire), please send me e-mail with
your particulars and the subject line of Risks, Rewards, and Responsibilities.
This curriculum is designed for a one to three week presentation (it could
be longer) and is most suitable for the 8-12th grades. It was developed by
the Los Alamos National Laboratory in partnership with the Santa Fe (NM)
Public Schools and EnterLearn Technologies. The curriculum uses radiation
to explore the questions of risks, rewards, and responsibilities. In Santa
Fe, the curriculum was used in regular physics and AP physics classes as
well as physical science. In physics, radiation is usually included at the
end of the book because it involves most of the course material to explore
radiation at a sophisticated level. In Santa Fe, the curriculum served as
an introduction. Use in the AP physics course early on did impact on
preparation for the advanced placement SAT tests. One teacher indicated
that using radiation as an introduction overpowers most students and use use
later in the year is preferred.
The curriculum explores the premise that we take risks to receive rewards
but incur certain individual and societal responsibilities. This premise
obviously is applicable to issues such as drinking, smoking, driving, and
teenage sex. But the issue explored is radiation and things such as the
storage of low level radioactive waste. It is emphasized that we cannot be
responsible citizens if we deal with tough issues by emotional response. In
making up our minds on issues, we are responsible for seeking out
authoritative information and passing judgment about the veracity of the
information.
Part of the curriculum includes the students conducting the SWOOPE (Students
Watching Over Our Planet Earth) Survey of adults. One question, for
example, is "Are bananas radioactive?" (They are - bananas contain potassium
which has a naturally occurring radioactive isotope.)
The curriculum is also compatible with the Neighborhood Watch Environmental
Network (NEWNet), which can be accessed via the Internet. NEWNet is a Los
Alamos program in which sensor platforms are placed in communities (about
$30K each). The platforms monitor standard meteorological data as well as
background radiation. The data are up linked to a NOAA satellite which send
the data to Los Alamos. Here the data are immediately incorporated into a
database which can be accessed via the Internet. While your community may
not have a sensor platform, you can access the data from other communities.
This summer, we are working with another teacher to hopefully have some
example studies that could be done with the NEWNet data.
The curriculum kit will contain (hopefully - we don't have everything locked
in yet)a variety of materials. Besides the curriculum itself (planned to be
printed in color - budget permitting) the kit will contain a copy of the Los
Alamos Science journal dealing with radiation, an 8 volume set of DOE
publications on radioactive waste, three video tapes dealing with what
radiation is, ethics in science, and the controversy over high level waste
storage at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. None of the planned videos were
produced by Los Alamos, the DOE or the US Government. We are working on
some other materials too, but I shouldn't describe too much. Incidently,
the curriculum does not require that you read, consume, or use all of the
materials. We have taken an approach of providing a lot so that through the
beta test we can determine what is really needed.
In addition to the above, we are working toward creating a web site (NEWNet
is already on-line) and two listservs - one for students and one for teachers.
Finally, I need to emphasize again that we are not selling anything. If all
goes well we will be mailing out kits at the end of August or early
September. The only thing we ask is for participants to complete the
summative evaluation. Of course, greater participation - including
experiments, constructive criticisms, class projects, etc. - will most
certainly be welcomed. This is a preliminary announcement. But if you
might be interested, please e-mail me as described in the first paragraph.
Andy Andrews
andrews@Lanl.GOV