Nuclear+Proliferation+Unit+Overview

By: Lauri Buffi, Katie Diesner & Rebecca Martin
 This unit was created for eleventh grade honors students in an urban school setting. The History, English, and Science courses described here are requirements for graduation. The eighteen students that share these three classes are college bound students. We are teaching this unit together in order to encourage students to analyze the proliferation of nuclear weapons from various perspectives. The literature class will examine this from a social context. The history class will examine the political, economic, and military context, and the science class will consider the scientific and technological context. The interdisciplinary overarching essential question for this unit is “How far reaching are the effects of nuclear warfare?” There will also be content specific essential questions examined in each class.

From a historical perspective, students will be examining the use and proliferation of nuclear weapons from an economic, political, and military context. The essential questions for this course are:  These questions are important because modern states continue to struggle to find ways to eliminate the threat of nuclear warfare. This generation of students will be faced with the complexities of this, one of the most important, issues of our time.
 *  Do nuclear weapons promote war or peace?
 *  Does national security supercede human security?
 *  Who has the right to have nuclear weapons?

The essential question examined in the Science class is: Students in this class will investigate the effects of nuclear warfare/nuclear technology from a scientific perspective. Students will learn the physical mechanisms that underlie nuclear technology and its effects (radiation). In conjunction with the curriculum in history and English class, this scientific context will give students a more holistic understanding of the past and present issues surrounding nuclear weapons.
 *  How should the world use its nuclear capacity?

In English class, the essential question is: Students will examine Kurt Vonnegut’s Cat’s Cradle, which is a satire on the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the scientists that helped create the atom bomb. By examining this satire, students will understand how satire can be used as a coping mechanism when dealing with such traumatic situations. The background knowledge that students acquire in their Science and History courses will help students understand where Vonnegut was coming from and what he was criticizing in his satire. Students will examine other types of texts in relation to historical and modern events, and will ultimately create their own satire. They will also write an argumentative paper stating their opinion on why authors would choose devastating or difficult events to create a satire on, drawing from the informational and fictional texts they read in class.
 *  Why is satire sometimes constructed out of tragic events?

 This unit will be a three week, or fifteen day unit, which ends with a debate that takes up all three class periods. Students will Integrate scientific and historical evidence to defend their opinions on the following questions: Students will be given their roles in the debate in their history class, but will be graded in all three content areas. Ms. Buffi will assess students based on their ability to demonstrate understanding of these issues from an economic, political, and military perspective. Ms. Diesner will grade students on their abilities to use scientific facts to support their arguments. Mrs. Martin will grade students on their speech and strength of argumentation. Mrs. Martin will also assign partners in class. Each person is responsible for critiquing the strength of their partner’s argument and their public speaking skills. This peer review will also count towards their English grade. Students will walk away from this unit with a strong understanding of how Science, History, and English are interrelated. The literacy skills they learn in each class will help them succeed in the other two classes and the rest of their high school courses.
 *  Do nuclear weapons promote war or peace?
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Should we have dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki?
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Is national security more important than human security?