“We waited until the blast had passed, walked out of the shelter and then it was entirely solemn. We knew the world would not be the same. A few people laughed, a few people cried. Most people were silent.”
– J. Robert Oppenheimer
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In this project we created an ebook about the Manhattan Project. The Manhattan Project was a top secret military and scientific endeavour, authorized and funded by the United States government, to create the world’s first atomic bomb. Click below to read our book: “The Power of A-Bomb”
The goal of this interactive ebook we created about the Manhattan Project was to answer the driving question:
“How did the development of the atomic bomb change the world?”
Which I think our book does an excellent job at answering as it explains how, in the words of our thesis: “The Manhattan Project was historically significant because it changed how science is used in political, including war, efforts around the world, leading to a new age of seeming peace.”
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In order to create this book, we were put into groups then worked together to research, write, design and create content for our final book. I was put into a group with Alicia, Inés, Sylas, Zach and Noah.
Our first step in creating the book was to create an outline of our book, including what each chapter was going to contain.
This is where we made our first mistake (or FAIL: First Attempt In Learning). We thought the thesis of our book was to simply to argue that the Manhattan Project was historically significant. What we didn’t realize until much later, was that in actuality we needed our thesis to be MUCH more specific. More on that later.
Our group then assigned roles and responsibilities to each team member.
Our group decided to divide up the work load by assigning a chapter to each person. We then began researching and writing our chapters.
My chapter was about the process of building of the bomb. I researched then wrote about topics including: the birth of the Manhattan Project, the creation of Los Alamos, the recruitment of scientists and the labs they worked in, the Trinity Test and the collaboration between countries. I kept all my work for this project organized in a Craft document, which I find works really well for me as all the work is in one document and doesn’t get lost in files.
We decided to design the majority of our book in Canva, using a black and white theme with a super cool cover design by Sylas. After researching and writing my chapter, I designed it in Canva with various image frames and icons.
Another requirement for our books was to have video content featuring all group members. We had the idea to create a reenactment of the Trinity Test, so we created a script and spent a whole 2 hours attempting to film it. We ended up creating the following video:
We then presented our (half finished) book to Ms. Willemse who gave us the feedback that:
- the reenactment was too funny considering the topic
- we needed a more specific thesis to target all our content towards supporting
- our design needed to be more consistent across chapters
Given the feedback, our group then went to work creating a more specific thesis. We went through several revisions but settled on:
“The Manhattan Project was historically significant because it changed how science is used in political, including war, efforts around the world, leading to a new age of seeming peace.”
Now that we had a thesis, we had to go back and reshape our chapters to align and provide supporting evidence for the new thesis. I was able to keep most of what I had already written, I just had to do some reorganization and rewording.
I was then presented with the issue of what to do about video content. We ran out of time and ideas to create a group video, but I knew I had to have video content of some sort to meet the assignment criteria. I was at a loss for ideas until we did a writing assignment about a speech made by Oppenheimer to the Association of Los Alamos scientists after the bombs had been detonated.
In this assignment we read a transcription of the speech, and then wrote an essay response to the questions:
“How do you think Oppenheimer was changed by his participation in the Manhattan Project and the creation of such a devastating weapon? Based on the context of his speech, do you think he regrets his contributions to the first atomic bomb?”
You can read my essay below:
Now back to the book. Writing the essay gave me the idea to simply create a Keynote presentation with a live video and make the essay into a video for my chapter. I really liked the way it turned out and I plan to use Keynote as a way to make educational videos more in future projects.
The competency associated with this project was “Communicating: I can express and reflect for communication by determining appropriate and effective forms for purpose, audience, and message.” I believe my chapter of the book does effectively communicate evidence to support our thesis, not only through written text, but also through my video and images. This project also relied heavily on Communication and Collaboration between group members. I feel that I was a reliable and trusted team member who lead the group forward in our thinking by contributing ideas, and doing a LOT of work independently outside of group time and keeping the group updated.
As a group, I feel that we did a lot of things well, but also have a lot to improve on. As a person who often takes the role of project leader, I think I can improve upon trying to find better ways to communicate with individuals who don’t hold the same level of integrity and contribution levels as I do. I can also try to ensure to-dos are focused on individual’s skills. I feel that as a leader I can be very on top of things to the point that other members get irritated by the constant reminders. I hope to find a way to continue to remind people about tasks without annoying them (although perhaps there might simply be no helping that).
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We also did two “check ins” for this project, in which we reflected on our progress and contribution on the project. Although they felt a bit like a tedious task that took away from group collaboration at the time, they were a really good way to take a step back and see what we needed to focus on for the rest of the week. If you’d like you can read mine below:
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The other side of this project I did a lot of work on was as my role as “DRI” (directly responsible individual) which is essentially the project manager. Although Inés and I shared this role, I did the brunt of the management (because I enjoy it). I created to-dos for every step of the way to creating our book, including lists for each individual team members.
I also created and edited documents with outlines, guidelines, links to file sharing, as well as feedback for each member’s chapter. I also sent out reminders of to-dos and organized cards on the card table to keep track of progress.
The final step of creating our book was importing our design into Pages from Canva, which I did a large portion of.
After doing this, I exported it into an ebook format which you can open in Apple Books. If you don’t have an Apple device, you can also read the PDF version, but note that it will be much more limited in terms of interactivity. Check it out below if you didn’t at the top of this post:
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Overall I learned a lot about the Manhattan Project, as I previously knew VERY little about it. I’m really proud of my chapter and the video I created for it, and I hope you enjoy reading and watching it!
In the opening of the book we ask you, the reader, to consider what it would have been like to be there in each phase of the Manhattan Project… and how the creation of this powerful nuclear weapon that it created affects your life to this day. I would love if you let me know your thoughts on that question in the comments below.
Thank you for reading! Have a BOMB-astic day! (awful pun I know, sorry not sorry.) 💣️