*Warning: This post is probably the longest on my blog. You might want to find a seat because you’ll be reading for a while*
The Manhattan Project. When anyone hears this phrase, the top secret Atomic Bomb WWII operation conducted by the United States, usually comes to mind. And if it doesn’t I strongly suggest you click here to read up on it, because this post is all about my experience with this alarmingly complex project that a nation kept secret from… well… itself and the rest of the world.
Pretty much, in the beginning of the school year, we were introduced to a new unit; The Manhattan Project². The main purpose of the unit was to fully understand what the project was, who was involved, and the set-up and work that went into it. We were then introduced to a video project as a way to go more in-depth into the topic. We were to work in groups of 5, and focus in on one of the sites of The Manhattan Project: The Hanford Site. We had to come up with one main topic, along with 5 sub-topics, and format it similar to the video series History In 5.
As well as creating an interesting documentary of our topic choice, we were told our film had to use the historical thinking concept of historical perspectives to frame our story. In order to understand the different settings that shaped the lives of people in the past, we had to really think hard, and pretty much transport ourselves into the 1940’s. We wrote letters as if we were those who lived on site at Hanford, and we created character cards, documenting the lives of those who worked on the project in the 1940’s.
My Character Card
Once we really had a good grip on the time period and the main events that took place during the Manhattan Project, it was time for a field study! Duh! But, before our trip, we were supposed to have planned out exactly what our movie was going to be based on, and how we were going to use historical perspective to help tell our story. PLUS, we had to have our whole script written and be ready to begin filming. My group, Anatolia, Chloe, Mike, Nolan, and I, had our topic finalized, as well as our subtopics. Our movie was going to be all about the Secrecy and Security at Hanford and how it ultimately played a part in the success of the Manhattan Project, my sub-topic being how the war would have been very different without the project.
Secrecy Sign from WWII
I researched a whole bunch of different military plans that were created by the United States, before the Manhattan Project even existed, and how very important secrecy was when the project was introduced. I found an interesting invasion plan, named Operation Downfall(that’s kinda intense if I’m being honest). The plan was for the U.S. to invade Japan, but it was predicted that there would be a loss of hundreds of thousands of military troops during the invasion, and potentially thousands more depending on how long the raid were to last. The idea to create the atomic bomb as a weapon was justified by the fact that there would be a smaller casualty and fatality rate among American troops and allies if there were to be a bomb, rather than an invasion. Because of the effort that was put in place to cover up the plans for the Manhattan Project, the United States guaranteed themselves a smooth ending to the war, and saved many American and allied casualties that alternate plans would have caused.
So anyways, back to the best part…. the actual trip! The HPC 11 class was the first cohort to travel this year, and I was super excited as the days rolled closer to our departure. At the end of September, we finally made our way down to Portland, Oregon, and Richland, Washington, on our good old Seycove bus, to investigate further into what the Hanford Site was and gather all the information and primary sources we could for our documentaries. We spent four days abroad, visiting many Manhattan project exhibits in museums, such as the REACH Museum, interviewed many knowledgeable people, some of whom took part in the project, and took a few bus tours to historical landmarks like the B-Reactor at Hanford.
HPC 11 With The B-Reactor At Hanford
On Our Way To Portland
Our Class at The REACH Museum
Every time our class goes on a field study, we get along so well, and bond as a cohort more and more. I had a very enjoyable and memorable experience learning first hand about how this technological endeavour helped to shape a nation, and changed the course of history. My group used these four days full of primary sources and firsthand accounts from the Manhattan Project quite well, gathering as much information as we could, as well as video and pictures to add into our movie. Unfortunately, we didn’t end up filming any clips of us talking on the trip, because we hadn’t finished our scripts beforehand, which resulted in us being behind from the get-go.
So, once we returned to Vancouver (Canada, not Washington. Just in case you hadn’t figured that out), we officially began constructing our movies. Let’s just say my group had to work extra hard to finish within the deadline. We had to fish out all of the rich information that we gathered on our trip, turn that into a script, actually film our parts, put it altogether, and hand it in. The worst part of all of this was that it was only the first draft (I’m just kidding, being able to make and hand in multiple drafts and receive critique is one of the best parts of PLP). We formatted our video sort of similar to the History In 5 example that we watched earlier in the year: We shot ourselves speaking in front of a green screen, then added pictures and videos to break up our clips. We thought it was ok for a first draft. It was a really really rough cut, but it was still something.
So then, after handing our new draft in, and hearing Mr. Hughes and Ms. Willemse’s constructive feedback, we started the same cycle for our second draft. We ended up shortening our movie length from 15 minutes long, to 9 and a half minutes long, as there was a large amount of “extra” information that was taking away from the core message. We had quite a lot of trouble with our audio because we realized the space we were using was echoey and…well it just had really bad sound for our iPads to pick up. But we ended up borrowing a microphone from Willemse and Hughes, so our audio problem was fixed…For the most part. By the time the second draft was due, our video still had a sort of rough feeling to it, not something you typically want in a second draft. But we still wanted to hand it in to receive more critique and feedback.
After playing around with the last few things to fix in our movie, it was suddenly time to hand our third and final draft in. My group was pretty nervous, as these videos weren’t just being put on our blogs, but they are being shown to our tour guides at the Hanford Site, and I mean these people know everything about anything Manhattan Project. So to say we were a tad intimidated was an understatement. But we handed it in regardless of our nervousness, and ended up being pretty proud of our creation. After days of filming and re-filming clips, fiddling with pairing up audio and visuals, long nights spent at Anatolia’s house with the group working on completing our movie, and a whole bunch research, we finally had handed in what seemed like a lifetime’s worth of work. To say I was relieved is an understatement.
But even when you hand work in when you are a part of PLP, you always pick out things in the project that could have gone differently, better, or not gone on at all. Now, one of the problems I had with this History In 5 movie, was that I somehow thought it was a good idea to not complete my prior research and planning of my script and movie, which turns out to be the most important part! I’m not going to lie, I knew that I was making a mistake, but I thought all would work out by the end. And it did, but only by the skin of my teeth. I know that for the next project like this one (because we always expect this sort of thing in PLP), I need to work harder on my organization and preparation skills. I know that if I had just prepared a bit more in the beginning, I wouldn’t have had to work so hard near the end to complete our Secrecy and Security At Hanford video.
So that’s all I have to say about this crazy, historical perspective-y, Manhattan Project² performance task, I hope you somewhat enjoyed this extremely long blog post (hey don’t say I didn’t warn you in the beginning), and if you are reading this I am proud that you made it this far. You’ll hear from me next time in our upcoming WWI blog post (thanks Ms. Willemse).
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