Introduction:
Hello and welcome back to yet another blog. This is the first blog of grade 11, and I am very excited to introduce you to our most recent project we have been working on, which was all about The Manhattan Project. This project was a challenging yet rewarding journey, where we explored atomic theory and its historical significance. Throughout this project, we had to dig into the science behind nuclear reactions, analyze political conflicts of atomic research, and examine the mass impact it had on the global economy and well being during the World War II era. Keep reading to learn about the lessons we learned about the power and responsibility that comes with nuclear science. This brings us to the end goal of this project, to create a digital ebook about The Manhattan Project.
Our Project:
As stated in the introduction, our work and ideas had to be communicated through an ebook, which contained specific evidence and ideas that relate to the complicated yet interesting Manhattan Project. This project included a mix of field school students and students who would stay home to continue work on the book. The half of us who stayed behind were mainly in charge of creating the book layout, feel, theme, and overall characteristics. The other half of the students would go on the field study and conduct on-site research, visiting Los Alamos. On July 16, 1945, the first detonation of a nuclear device took place. This event involved a plutonium implosion mechanism and occurred at a location approximately 210 miles south of Los Alamos, New Mexico. The test site was situated on the Jornada del Muerto plains within the Alamogordo Bombing Range. This historic test was codenamed ‘Trinity.’ Source: AIR FORCE NUCLEAR WEAPONS CENTRE
As we delve into this project, I want you to take a minute and think about how insane it is that we can create a weapon so incredibly powerful that it could wipe out our entire planet with ease. Our biggest enemy isn’t anyone but ourselves; we are the ones who would be responsible for a mass extinction or nuclear apocalypse. All of these ideas have become more and more apparent, and have started to set in as a possible reality. Let’s talk about our book and the steps we took to complete it.
The eBook:
In no way was this book easy to make. It took a team of six, and as group projects normally go, communication was sometimes lacking between certain members. Communication is vital to making sure designs and ideas are communicated with all members of the group to ensure everyone is on the same page. Our group was first tasked with picking out roles for each member. Naturally, I chose to be the head of design and took the initiative to create the cover, table of contents, fonts, and layout/feel of the book. I was also in charge of editing videos that our on-site research team captured. I think I did a good job at communicating ideas and getting my designs coordinated with the rest of the team. I also think I excelled in my ability to accept peer critique, which I feel is mainly due to the fact I am a senior student now and have matured a lot from the beginning of high school to now. Moving onto the details of The Manhattan Project, which, as it turns out, is an incredibly complex project (Would would’ve guessed). During our research period, we took notes daily in class, which would help us with our understanding of the project, as well as the amount of detail and information we have in our ebook. Here are all my notes I took throughout the project:
After we collected all of our notes and put together all of our research, we started to put together our book. Being the head of design, I naturally wanted to create the cover, which I ended up doing. My first sketch was this:
My team was very satisfied with this style of cover, and we ended up rolling with the design. After we were set on the design, we started to put together our chapters and build each chapter one by one. As our group started to refine the book, I was hard at work on getting the cover finished. Our final cover ended up coming out like this:
I’m very happy with the way our cover and table of contents came out.
Now that you know our design process, and the steps it took to get our book finalized, here is our ebook:
eBook:
Conclusion:
In conclusion, this project was the perfect mix of communication, collaboration, design, and process. This project not only expanded my ideas and knowledge around the Manhattan Project, but also helped me further develop my communication, and collaborative skills, which is something I will definitely bring up during my next Mpol. As with pretty much all PLP projects I do, I build my knowledge on not just the project theme, but the work itself. Projects like this really help me understand how to connect with people and collaborate and communicate effectively. Not only that projects like this help me understand how to construct a well supported paragraph, or in this case, chapter with evidence and supporting ideas. Thanks for checking out the first blog of PLP 11 and I will see you very soon. Peace.
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