Nuclear Reactions UBD (Understanding by Design) Framework: Grades 11-12
Desired Results 
Goals of the Program 
Students will…
•	Enrich their understanding of a place through inquiry. 
•	Experience National Parks as places for learning and recreation and develop a personal connection with their local National Parks. 
•	Learn about personal and collective sacrifices made in opposition to the national security policies during the Cold War. 
Transfer
•	Analyze and synthesize primary and secondary sources. 
•	Engage in an informed and reasoned discussion of national security and individual rights. 
Meaning 
Essential Question
What does safety look like?
Enduring Understandings: Students will understand that… 
•	Historical interpretation is influenced by one’s perspective. 
•	Local history enriches and challenges our perception of the national narrative. 
•	National Parks belong to all of us and each od us can play a part in their preservation and protection. 
•	People have and continue to make personal and collective sacrifices to challenge national security policies. 
Acquisition 
Students will know…
•	The historical context of the Nike Missile Site. 
•	The Cold War represents an era in which a policy of deterrence was designed to prevent nuclear annihilation. 
•	Personal and collective sacrifices made while challenging national security policies during the Cold War parallel those made today. 
Students will be able to….
•	Analyze primary sources to determine the rationale and opposition to national security policies. 
•	Explain the true cost of the policy of mutually assured destruction (MAD). 
•	Synthesize information and opinions about the national security policies in order to present an argument supporting a specific claim using valid reasoning, and relevant and sufficient evidence. 
Evidence 
Students will show their learning by completing one of the following tasks:
•	Write a six-line haiku poem after examining primary and secondary sources that explain the dissenting views expressed by individuals and communities of United States national security policies during the Cold War. 
•	Write an informative/explanatory summary in response to the question: What were the socioeconomic impacts of the government’s policy of Mutually Assured Destruction?
•	Write an informative/explanatory summary addressing the question: How is the examination of sacrifices made in opposition to U.S. national security policies during the Cold War relevant today? 
CA History-Social Studies Content Standards
10.9: Students analyze the international developments in the post World War II world. 
10.9.2: Analyze the causes of the Cold War with the free world on one side and Soviet client states on the other, including competition for influence in such places as Egypt, the Congo, Vietnam, and Chile. 
11.7: Students analyze America’s participation in World War II. 
11.7.7: Discuss the decision to drop atomic bombs and the consequences of the decision (Hiroshima and Nagasaki). 
11.9: Students analyze U.S. foreign policy since World War II. 
11.9.3: Trace the origins and geopolitical consequences (foreign and domestic) of the Cold War and containment policy, including the following:
The era of McCarthyism, instances of domestic Communism (e.g., Alger Hiss) and blacklisting, Truman Doctrine, Berlin Blockade, Korean War, Bay of Pigs invasion and Cuban Missile Crisis, Atomic testing in the American Wet, the “mutual assured destruction” doctrine, and disarmament policies, Vietnam War, and Latin American policy. 
11.9.4: List the effects of foreign policy on domestic policies and vice versa (e.g., protests during the war in Vietnam, the “nuclear freeze” movement). 
12.2: Students evaluate and take and defend positions on the scope and limits of rights and obligations as democratic citizens, the relationships among them, and how they are secured. 
12.2.1: Discuss the meaning and importance of each of the rights guaranteed under the Bill of Rights and how each is secured (e.g., freedom of religion, speech, press, assembly, petition, privacy). 
12.10: Students formulate questions about and defend their analyses of tensions within our constitutional democracy and the importance of maintaining a balance between the following concepts: majority rule and individual rights; liberty and equality; state and national authority in a federal system; civil disobedience and the rule of law; freedom of the press and the right to a fair trial; the relationship of religion and government. 
12.3: Students analyze the influence of the federal government on the American economy. 
12.3.2: Identify the factors that may cause the costs of government actions to outweigh the benefits. 
Source: History Social Science Content Standards - Content Standards (CA Dept of Education)
CA Common Core Standards 
Speaking and Listening Standards (pg 68)
1.	Initiate and participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on Cold War topics, texts, and issues, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively. 
2.	Integrate multiple sources of information presented in diverse formats and media (e.g., visually, quantitatively, orally) in order to make informed decisions and solve problems, evaluating the credibility and accuracy of each source and noting any discrepancies among the data. 
3.	Evaluate a speaker’s point of view, reasoning, and use of evidence and rhetoric, assessing the stance, premises, links among ideas, word choice, points of emphasis, and tone used. 
Reading Standards for Literacy in History/ Social Studies (pg 81)
1.	Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary and secondary sources, connecting insights gained from specific details to an understanding of the text as a whole. 
4.	Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including analyzing how an author uses and refines the meaning of a key term over the course of a text (e.g. how Madison defines faction in Federalist No. 10). 
6.	Evaluate authors’ differing points of view on the same historical event or issue by assessing the authors’ claims, reasoning, and evidence. 
Writing Standards for Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects (pg 68)
1.	Write arguments focused on discipline-specific content. 
b. Develop claim(s) and counterclaims fairly and thoroughly, supplying the most relevant data and evidence for each while pointing out the strengths and limitations of both claim(s) and counterclaims in a discipline-appropriate form that anticipated the audience’s knowledge level, concerns, values, and possible biases. 
4. Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience. 
Source: CCSS for ELA - Content Standards (CA Dept of Education)
Learning Plan 
Summary of Key Learning Events and Instruction 
1.	Teacher attends teacher workshop (if new to the program).  

Classroom Preparation 

1)	Before NPS pre-trip presentation: Teacher shows 11:22-minute Nike Missile Site SF88 -Golden Gate National Recreation Area video to introduce trip purpose and overarching concept. 
2)	Teacher leads students in one lesson plan: “A Heated Time Period: The Cold War”.
a.	How do competing ideologies co-exist?
b.	Was everyone in agreement on the purpose and success of the Cold War?
c.	Were there any parallels of the Cold War experience to those of today?
d.	Collect questions to bring to the park visit. 
Field Visit

1)	Students are welcomed by NPS staff and provided with basic safety rules. NPS staff facilitates a short dialogue about issues inherent in the relationship between national security and personal freedom. Students consider how they each define safety. Working in small groups, students conduct their own inquiry on designated area of the Nike Site. Students record their observations and inferences. They pose informational and critical thinking questions. The class then has the opportunity to engage in a Q&A session with NPS staff. The field visit ends with have a debate amongst students. 

Classroom Assessment 

1)	NPS staff will provide teachers with a postage-paid envelope with student post-activity reflections to be completed by each student back at school, then mailed to us within 2 weeks. 
2.	These reflections help us improve the program and support with transportation scholarships for students to visit the Marin Headlands.  (: