Students will compare and contrast fission and fusion in respect to their potential for providing energy for the future.

Students will participate in a debate on whether or not nuclear reactors should be abandoned as a source of energy because of the disposal problem for the produced wastes that contain isotopes with half-lives measured in the thousands or hundreds of thousands of years.

Students will trace the development of nuclear energy explaining how each scientist revised the theory.

Each student will select on scientist who contributed to the development of nuclear energy and present a well-reasoned argument supporting their contributions as the most significant. They will revise their argument as others present their views and work towards consensus as a class deciding who should be honored as the Father or Mother of atomic energy.

*Unifying Concept (NSES) represented in this activity. Unifying concepts cross curricular areas and provide students with productive and insightful ways of thinking about and integrating basic ideas that explain the natural and designed world.