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Re: High School Level Radiation Education Curriculum?
Dr. Priscilla Laws at Dickinson College developed an educational program for
participants in a citizen monitoring program around Three Mile Island. My
company, International Medcom (www.medcom.com), provided the instrumentation
for this program. Dr. Laws is an innovator in "hands-on" physics education,
and the course materials could easily be adapted to the high school level.
Another program using our instruments was developed at LANL and was called
"Project SWOOPE." This project actually started at grade school level and
included high school level course materials. I have articles on this
program if anyone is interested. They developed extensive curriculum
materials before the project ended at LANL. I believe the program was
transferred to EPA. The co-directors at LANL were Dr. Diane Hyers and Dr.
Roger Eckhardt. Hope this is helpful.
--Dan Sythe
International Medcom
-----Original Message-----
From: David W Lee <lee_david_w@lanl.gov>
To: Multiple recipients of list <radsafe@romulus.ehs.uiuc.edu>
Date: Tuesday, January 19, 1999 2:37 PM
Subject: High School Level Radiation Education Curriculum?
>--=====================_124196171==_.ALT
>Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
>
>
>Dear Radsafers:
>
> I am posting this summary of a message I received here at Los
Alamos
>National Laboratory, from a non-RADSAFE member, in the hope that some
>RADSAFERS
>may have helpful expertise/knowledge regarding this issue.
>
> In the 1995-96 time frame, LANL was taken to court by a local Santa
>Fe-based anti-nuclear group called the Concerned Citizens for Nuclear
Safety
>(CCNS)--a group heavily funded by Jane Fonda/Ted Turner. The outcome of
this
>case was that LANL signed a consent degree in January 1997. The text of
this
>consent decree apparently did NOT explicitly require LANL to develop a high
>school radiation education curriculum. However, the CCNS lawyers now feel
>that
>LANL had an implied obligation to develop such a curriculum and make it
>available to local high schools, etc.
>
> Accordingly, the CCNS now wants the judge to rule in their favor
(that
>LANL must develop such a curriculum) and further seeks to make the judge
>specify that any curriculum developed by LANL must use the radiation
>information from the NEWNET project. COMMENT: I do not know anything
about
>the NEWNET project, but I suspect that since the CCNS is recommending it,
that
>this project may contain either misleading or biased radiation information
>that
>is more closely aligned with CCNS's anti-nuclear viewpoint.
>
> Given the possibility that LANL may be told to develop a
high-school
>level radiation education curriculum, do any RADSAFERS know of any such
>curricula currently in existence, endorsed or developed by say the Health
>Physics Society, the American Nuclear Society, DOE, or the American Science
>Teachers Association, etc., or any other reputable organization? The
thought
>is to possibly find an already developed curriculum and either modify it or
>piggyback information on it possibly to the point of having a module the
would
>show local schools how to use the NEWNET data. As you can surmise, LANL is
>trying to prepare itself to have to develop such a curriculum under court
>consent decree (worst case scenario), and should that turn out to be the
case,
>LANL ought to do a quality job in developing an accurate, unbiased
curriculum.
>
> The suggestions of any RADSAFER knowledgeable in this regard are
>sincerely solicited. All replies to RADSAFE concerning this message will
be
>forwarded to the LANL contacts concerned with this issue. These contacts
are
>Andy Andrews (andrews@lanl.gov) and Jean Dewart (dewart@lanl.gov).
>
> Thank-you in advance for your help. Best regards David
>
>DAVID W. LEE
>Los Alamos National Laboratory
>Radiation Protection Services, ESH-12
>X-Ray/Source Control Team Leader
>PO Box 1663, MS K483
>Los Alamos, NM 87545
>PH: (505) 667-8085
>FAX: (505) 667-9726
>lee_david_w@lanl.gov
>
>--=====================_124196171==_.ALT
>Content-Type: text/html; charset="us-ascii"
>
><html><div>Dear Radsafers:</div>
><br>
><div><x-tab> </x-tab>I am
>posting this summary of a message I received here at Los Alamos National
>Laboratory, from a non-RADSAFE member, in the hope that some RADSAFERS
>may have helpful expertise/knowledge regarding this issue.</div>
><br>
><div><x-tab> </x-tab>In
>the 1995-96 time frame, LANL was taken to court by a local Santa Fe-based
>anti-nuclear group called the Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety
>(CCNS)--a group heavily funded by Jane Fonda/Ted Turner. The
>outcome of this case was that LANL signed a consent degree in January
>1997. The text of this consent decree apparently did NOT explicitly
>require LANL to develop a high school radiation education
>curriculum. However, the CCNS lawyers now feel that LANL had an
>implied obligation to develop such a curriculum and make it available to
>local high schools, etc.</div>
><br>
><div><x-tab> </x-tab>Accordi
ngly,
>the CCNS now wants the judge to rule in their favor (that LANL must
>develop such a curriculum) and further seeks to make the judge specify
>that any curriculum developed by LANL must use the radiation information
>from the NEWNET project. COMMENT: I do not know anything
>about the NEWNET project, but I suspect that since the CCNS is
>recommending it, that this project may contain either misleading or
>biased radiation information that is more closely aligned with CCNS's
>anti-nuclear viewpoint.</div>
><br>
><div><x-tab> </x-tab>Given
>the possibility that LANL may be told to develop a high-school level
>radiation education curriculum, do any RADSAFERS know of any such
>curricula currently in existence, endorsed or developed by say the Health
>Physics Society, the American Nuclear Society, DOE, or the American
>Science Teachers Association, etc., or any other reputable
>organization? The thought is to possibly find an already developed
>curriculum and either modify it or piggyback information on it possibly
>to the point of having a module the would show local schools how to use
>the NEWNET data. As you can surmise, LANL is trying to prepare
>itself to have to develop such a curriculum under court consent decree
>(worst case scenario), and should that turn out to be the case, LANL
>ought to do a quality job in developing an accurate, unbiased
>curriculum.</div>
><br>
><div><x-tab> </x-tab>The
>suggestions of any RADSAFER knowledgeable in this regard are sincerely
>solicited. All replies to RADSAFE concerning this message will be
>forwarded to the LANL contacts concerned with this issue. These
>contacts are Andy Andrews (andrews@lanl.gov) and Jean Dewart
>(dewart@lanl.gov).</div>
><br>
><x-tab> </x-tab>Thank-you
>in advance for your help. Best regards David
><br>
>
><br>
><font size=3>DAVID W. LEE<br>
>Los Alamos National Laboratory<br>
>Radiation Protection Services, ESH-12<br>
>X-Ray/Source Control Team Leader<br>
>PO Box 1663, MS K483<br>
>Los Alamos, NM 87545<br>
>PH: (505) 667-8085<br>
>FAX: (505) 667-9726<br>
>lee_david_w@lanl.gov<br>
></font></html>
>
>--=====================_124196171==_.ALT--
>
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