Neag Center Home Page | News & Views
Nuclear Legacy is a book about hope, about growing up in a nuclear city and about the resiliency of the human spirit. It was written and researched by American 8th grade students in Richland, WA home of the Manhattan Project from WWII, and by students from Slavutych, Ukraine, home for workers at the Chornobyl Nuclear Site. It contains the first published articles by children evacuated after the Chornobyl disaster and interviews with scientists and engineers who produced the plutonium for the bombs "Fat Man" and "Little Boy" during WWII. It also talks about two communities' attempts to diversify beyond the nuclear industry and build a successful future.
The book is written in Ukrainian and English. The layout, design and photography was done primarily by students working with mentors. It is an example of what fourteen-year-olds can accomplish given an opportunity to pursue a passion and given instruction in an inquiry method of research. And it is an example of authentic collaboration between two cultures that once mistrusted and feared each other.
Nuclear Legacy is only one product from a class developed by Maureen McQuerry at Hanford Middle School in Richland, WA. The class, Passion Projects, is designed to let highly capable students pursue a topic they are passionate about while learning research and problem solving skills. It functions as a semester elective culminating with a product and presentation to a committee composed of community mentors and experts in the field. Students work on individual or small group projects with mentors while learning the inquiry method of research including: how to write thesis statements, and project proposals, how to organize and conduct research and present findings. It also is one time in the day when gifted kids in a typically heterogeneous middle school setting can be together and take a project as far as they would like. Other projects have included building a trebuchet with a 17 foot throwing arm, studying the relationship between chimps and sign language, how new materials have changed architecture, history day and science fair projects. A teacher's resource guide to developing and carrying out a class based on the Passion Projects model will be available in fall of 2001. It will have a special section focused on developing international collaborations.
Nuclear Legacy has sold 2500 copies since June of 2000. The royalties are go to a non profit corporation to further similar educational projects. This 300 page, hardback book sells for $22.50 through Barnes and Noble or Amazon.com. It is an excellent model for teachers working with gifted students of the type of projects that are possible.