Jan 22-23, the birth of atomic energy (and paranoia)

Today in class we started the final chapter of our interactions of matter book. We are now in the atomic age.

To start off we looked at the world in 1953, when atomic energy was brand new. We watched the civil defense film "Duck and Cover" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0K_LZDXp0I

Then we watched film of an actual nuclear blast at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZxmDJYBKKo

Following this we compared life in 1953 with life today, then we watched excerpts from the film A is for Atom which can be found here.
http://www.archive.org/details/isforAto1953

Finally we discussed our new project. We need to think of some aspect of atomic energy that might interest us--it can be fallout, use in war, cold war, reactors, use in medicine, etc. We will be creating digital stories that help tell the story that we wish to tell.

We'll be doing this in class--however all should start doing some research now--come into class with a good idea on what you want to work on.