Summer SAVY Session 3, Day 2 – Fission and Fusion: Nuclear Engineering 101
Day 2: Nuclear Energy: Friend or Foe
Good evening SAVY students and parents! Day 2 was a great success! We continued our investigations of different types of systems this morning. Our nuclear physicists began the day with a nature walk on campus to observe, explore, and record the different systems. We ventured back into the classroom to discuss and place our systems in a simple vs. complex order. We shared our different system groups and determined which system is most like a nuclear power plant and which system is least like a power plant. Students had a wonderful discussion and gave insightful explanations about their comparisons! After our system analysis, we investigated isotopes and their relationship to nuclear energy. Students completed guided doodle notes from a slide presentation. The doodle notes were a big hit because we have so many great artists in our class. After lunch, we started to dig deeper into our initial problem of nuclear energy being a friend or foe. Students were given a scenario situation where they were able to determine if nuclear energy was good or bad based on the problem. We had a wonderful whole-group discussion about their thoughts and opinions!
Day 2 was wrapped up by creating our own reactor structure with clay and candle sticks. The teachers completed a demo with fire and candle sticks (no students played with fire, but blew the candle sticks out :)). The nuclear engineers were able to see the way reactors release energy by observing the burn times of the candlesticks!
We ended the day with a dance party, and I learned several new dance moves!!
Have a restful evening! I am looking forward to day 3!!
Shelley Jenkins and Joshua Knight