In conjunction with the book we chose for our book club discussion I decided to do my webquest on The Atomic Bomb.
Here's the link to my google doc. It includes the teachers' guide and answers at the end.
The Atomic Bomb
Some of the challenges I encountered while making this webquest was making sure I was not focusing too much on the historical or even ethical qualms that surround this event. I wanted to focus on the science aspect and revelations that occurred during this time period. With that in mind I know that my audience is high school students so I wanted to make sure I did not choose sites or ask questions that would go above their level. I feel that the sites I chose are easy to navigate and offered different media for students as well. There are videos, images, diagrams, and various graphics to explain the science.
Some challenges that my students could encounter while completing this webquest would involve trying to understand nuclear fission and its complexity. From this webquest I would want my students to just become familiar with nuclear fission. I would want them to focus more on the idea of isotopes and how they play a part in nuclear energy. Hopefully they would find this topic as engaging as I do!
When teaching about a sensitive topic such as this, where you may have some students/parents emotionally or historically connected to the event, would you consider discussing the historical aspects of the topic or at least informing parents about the topic you will be teaching to open up communicative links to them? I recall learning about the history of the Atomic Bomb in both History and Chemistry classes.
ReplyDeleteI think it would be interesting to send a survey out to students and parents about the Atomic Bomb before completing the webquest. It could be similar to the interest survey we created for our students, but also include questions about an individual's attitude towards the topic.
DeleteI really think this is a cool webquest! I'm not super interested in chemistry, but this activity seems interesting! I agree about this as a sensitive topic, as Bobby said. Would you consider teaching about ethics during this as well? I think it would be interesting for students to learn ethics in science and going over the atomic bomb is a great way to introduce ethics.
ReplyDeleteI agree that this would be a good introduction to ethics if you were to go over that with your students. I used an ethics discussion as an assessment tool once where students had to research a topic beforehand and then come to class to discuss the pros and cons of either side. It could act as a check for you to see how much they took away from the webquest by asking them to back up their comments during the ethics with the science behind it.
DeleteThere are several moments in the text where the reader is challenged to make ethical considerations about the events. In one of our group discussions, we discussed this as a prime opportunity to bring ethics into the classroom, particularly in the context of Scientific experimentation and research.
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