Targeted Instructional Objective: Applying scientific knowledge to community issues

Content Focus: Understanding the historical and socio-economic elements driving environmental restoration

General Instructional Goal: Obtain introductory background knowledge concerning the INEEL. Students demonstrate an introductory recognition of the historical, political, and governmental issues involved with restoration activities conducted at the INEEL.

This lesson is meant to serve as a very general introduction to the IEMP unit, and can be simplified or expanded at the teacher's discretion to correspond to various instructional elements, such as students' present level of knowledge, curriculum content requirements, and of course, the ever-present issue of available class time.

The reading material very briefly highlights:

• Key historical events which eventually led to the establishment of the INEEL Oversight Program, one of several agencies sponsoring construction of the four Envirnomental Monitoring stations.
• The station equipment, including a diagram which, along with a list of the types of \tab \tab \tab data collected at the stations, offers students a basic identification of the functions of the meteorological technology they can anticipate seeing during their field trip to the station.

Because this material is general, it can be incorporated into the unit as a fifteen to twenty minute preview, or act as a springboard for more in-depth cross-curricular studies. As teachers will naturally wish to develop their own specific learning outcomes to match the extent of study they intend to devote to this first lesson, no formal lesson plan has been developed for this section of the unit.

However, for those teachers who might use the material as the basis for more advanced critical thinking activities, the following list of suggested discussion topics may be useful in sparking debate during the reading.

Optional Discussion Topics and Questions

The Ethics of Science

Given that:

Back in the fifties, the "atomic age" was booming and new "miracle" products were all the rage. Suddenly, Americans could pack picnic lunches in new plastic boxes, clear up their kids' ear infections with a couple of state-of-the-art antibiotics, even buy synthetic unwrinkable clothing that kissed the iron goodbye! Experts from all fields of science praised the wonders of technology to the skies, and to be fair, a lot of these miracle products turned out to be...well, pretty miraculous. Some of them, unfortunately, only looked miraculous for a little while, and fizzled out. Even worse, as time went on, scientists began to realize a few of these products had caused completely unexpected damage, damage that, in some cases, wasn't discovered until twenty years later, and might as yet still remain dormant.

 

On the other hand, science is by its very nature the practice of trial and error, the process of application and observation, the series of experiments and hypothesis and more experiments.

Then:

Is it even possible for a product to ever be considered "safe"

How can anyone know how long should something be tested before it's considered fit for the public?

What kinds of laws would you make to be sure that a new product didn't cause devastating side effects? How would you even go about making those kinds of laws?

What if you or someone you cared about came down with a terrible illness that has no cure? Wouldn't you want your doctors to let you try any experimental treatment they could offer, even knowing that if it worked on the illness, it could possibly cause another illness later? Would you try it if there was a possibility that, even though the treatment would leave you healthy, it might alter you genetically, in a way that might pass problems onto your descendants?

Government Requirements:

Given that:

Obviously, one of the roles of the government should be to protect the health and safety of people who support it. But when the government gets involved with trying to make protective rules for science and research, some people think that interferes with scientific inquiry. They believe too many regulations or the wrong kinds of regulations simply put too many restrictions on scientific studies.

Then:

How much should the government be involved?

 

And which part of the government should really be in charge? The states? The federal government? Who gets to be boss?

 

Then where do the scientists fit in? How can you leave the scientists out of the decision-making, when they're the ones who really understand the scientific aspects of an issue?

 

Individual Responsibility:

Given that:

We've just read that the State of Idaho has a legal obligation to inform Idaho about the contamination at the site. We have a right to know.

 

Then:

Do you agree that we, as citizens, have a right to know?

 

Not all countries believe that their people have rights to certain information. Some governments deliberately keep information from the public. They believe their people wouldn't really understand the issues, so the government is actually protecting those citizens by making decisions for them. Is that unfair, or does it actually make sense? After all, what's the point in giving people information they won't try to understand?

 

Then, do people have a responsibility to learn what they can about things that affect their health and safety? Who, ultimately, is responsible for your welfare?

 

If you have a right to information, do you therefore also have an obligation to learn to understand that information to make informed opinions and good decisions for yourself?

Supplemental/Cross Curricular Activities and Ideas

It's a small, small world: Understanding the atom

Small groups bone up on the basics of the atom as they draw poster sized illustrations of electrons, neutrons, and protons to hang on walls or bulletin boards. Whether the drawings are serious renditions or creative spin offs, as long as they're accurate, the class can use them later as reference when students near the unit section on radiation.

 

Miracle Workers: New and Improved in the Atomic Age

Individual writing assignment digs up the beginnings of things most people take for granted, as the students search for "miracle" items that eventually became standard household or commercial products. Once the research is done, students can use the facts creatively to write the "bio" of a fictitious Fifties person whose life has been changed dramatically by the new product.

 

Every Little Bit Helps: Small scale restoration project

Whole class project sends students to a teacher-designated "environmental restoration site" where everybody is responsible for pitching in and making the world a cleaner place. For younger students, this assignment might fall into the category of community service at a park; advanced students could plan a more realistic clean-up strategy, splitting into groups in charge of different types of "contamination" (soda cans, plastic bottles, etc.), selecting "government officials" to monitor the work, and negotiating the "regulatory standards "each group must try to meet.