Chicago Teachers for Social Justice Curriculum Fair 2023

 "What are ethical responsibilities as scientists?" asks Ms. Gluckman to her 7th grade students and all fellow science teachers.

"Paper Crane Project: Building Our Interconnectedness and Our Resistance against Nuclear Deviation" at Chicago Teachers for Social Justice Curriculum Fair 2023

Laura Gluckman and her 7th grade students, Tristen and Josiah, presented their learning of "Nuclear Energy and the Body" science unit. In Fall 2023 at National Teachers Academy CPS, 7th grader students learned about the nuclear radiation and its effect on the human body, with the important question in their mind -"whose bodies have been most affected in history?" Not only did they learn very sophisticated scientific concepts, such as alpha, beta, and gamma radioactive particles, radioactive decay, half-life, etc., but they also investigated the history of nuclear science from the environmental justice lens. They learned about Hiroshima and Nagasaki victims who were researched but not treated by American institute, Pacific Islanders whose life was destroyed by hundreds of bomb testings, and indigenous communities that have been affected not only by bomb testings but also by uranium mining for nuclear power, the allegedly "clean energy" according to some. They met activists from all over the world - VFP Golden Rule Project crew and Aileen Mioko Smith, and they will meet Hibakusha from Nagasaki City next week. Students made art pieces based on such intensive and engaging inquiry into nuclear energy and the body in collaboration with Sarah Rosengard's students at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Kudos to Ms. Gluckman. Yuki Miyamoto and I, as collaborators in her curriculum development process, were moved to tears to witness how beautifully she executed this extreme challenge, the challenge to critically teach nuclear history in the U.S. 

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