What is significance? More precisely, how do we determine if something is historically significant and what led to the creation of the biggest threat and greatest benefit to mankind during the end of the Second World War? Well thats what we set out to learn on the PLP 11 trip to Albuquerque New Mexico. This post will cover the events of the trip, the work I did while on the trip, and the final project on our main driving question.

This started as our first project of Grade 11 where we  our question of historical significance. Our topic was the Manhattan Project, a top secret US project that made the atom bomb. This was a great topic as it is a very clear outlined turning point in human history, for better or for worse depending on how you look at it. 

For our research we actually started back over summer vacation, and we read the book The Age of Radiance, a complete overview of the entire development of nuclear technology. It covered the lives of many famous people who contributed to the research. Like Marie Curie and Enrico Fermi, people who pioneered the research that eventually led to the creation of atomic weapons. This topic was very interesting for me as I was always interested in nuclear science and so I finished the book at a relatively quick pace. 

When we got back we began planning for our trip to Albuquerque, New Mexico which would become the main highlight of the project. On the trip we would gather interviews, become more informed on the topic and witness firsthand the birth of nuclear technology.

Now Im not going to go into incredible detail on the Manhattan Project as that would take a long time to explain because of how much there is to talk about, so instead I present you with this book I made covering the entire thing. Reading it will give a complete overview of the learning we did on the trip. 

The entire trip wasn’t all about nuclear science though, we had plenty of time to relax and do other things. One example that I both loved and hated at the same time was when we went to the Balloon Festival. It was truly an amazing sight seeing hundreds of balloons go up throughout the day but it was also exhausting getting up at 3:30am that morning to witness the morning flights. There was such a large amount of passion around the festival that took up the entire day, concluding with a fireworks display that must have used 1000s of dollars worth of explosives. 

Another interesting stop on the trip was the VLA or Very Large Array, a very fittingly named telescope consisting of many small radio telescopes that come together to form a massive telescope. It was beautiful to behold and inspiring to hear of the many discoveries that it had made. They even had supercomputer parts donated all the way from Canada. 

Getting back on topic with what the original focus of this post was on the atomic bomb and with the manhattan project being based in New Mexico there were plenty of sites for us to visit. We went to the museum of atomic energy, as well as Manhattan Project sites like the lab at Los Alamos and the Trinity Test Site. All of the interviews and information that I got from here has been put into the Ebook linked above. It was really insightful being able to see all of the historic sites and relics in person, adding character and a sense of scale to the information we were researching. Out of all of them going to the trinity site was definitely the highlight of the trip for me, waiting on the open desert highway in a queue of hundreds of cars and seeing the site of the first atomic detonation in history was a really awesome experience. There were also a ton of experts to talk about the bomb and they were able to answer questions that I had left about the book.

There was a lot of information to take in on this trip and I had to really push myself to have not only the energy (after getting up at 3:00am on one occasion) and also the mindset to fully take advantage of the situation I was in. I tried to take as many photos and notes as possible as I probably wont ever be going back to New Mexico any time soon. I also made an effort to try and connect everything back to the manhattan project as that was the reason we were there and looking at the positive/negative effects. Many people had mixed opinions on the bombs and I got to hear arguments both for and against the entire trip.

I think that this is one of the more enjoyable projects I’ve done and it was a great way to start the year. All of the information we learned seemed relevant and was really interesting. New Mexico as a place was also really cool to go to as it was radically different from anywhere else I’ve been before. I really enjoyed talking to the people we interviewed on the project as well as the random people we met while on the journey. Everyone I talked to was really friendly and were passionate about what they were doing especially the tourists I met chasing the similar goal of seeing the trinity site.

This was an amazing PLP trip and a memorable life experience.