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Lesson Plan

Mapping the Nuclear World

Objective-Students will:

Analyze maps and data to draw conclusions about the status of nuclear weapons stockpiles today.

Develop map reading skills and data-analysis skills.

Resources

• Introduction and Map Analysis Questions (handout)
• Nuclear Weapons Status 2005 (map)

In the Classroom

Note: Prior to this lesson, students should have an understanding of three challenges facing us today.

Part II of The Challenge of Nuclear Weapons addresses these topics.

• The leftover arsenals of the Cold War
• Proliferation
• The threat of nuclear terrorism

Students may also find Scholars Online videos on this topic helpful.

Getting Started—Have students generate as a class a short list of current problems surrounding nuclear weapons. Put the list on the board or an overhead.

Map Analysis—Explain to students that they will be using a map to examine the status of nuclear weapons. Put students in groups of two or three and hand out the “Map Analysis Questions.”

Sharing Conclusions—After students have finished the activity, review some of the answers. Are there connections to the current problems listed on the board?

Extra Challenge

Ask students to review additional maps from Deadly Arsenals: Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Threats at www.carnegieendowment.org/deadlymaps. This is a series of maps reflecting the worldwide proliferation of nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons and their missile delivery systems. It is provided by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Additional Resources from the Choices Program

• The Challenge of Nuclear Weapons [Curriculum Unit]
• Nuclear Weapons: What Should Our Policy Be? [Teaching with the News]
• The U.S. and Iran: Confronting Policy Alternatives [Teaching with the News]
• North Korea and Nuclear Weapons [Teaching with the News]
• Scholars Online: The Challenge of Nuclear Weapons
• Scholars Online: The U.S. and Iran
• Online Ballot—Nuclear Weapons: What should we do?
• Online Ballot—The U.S. Role in the World?

Mapping the Nuclear World is excerpted from The Challenge of Nuclear Weapons. This is a one-week unit that gives students the tools they need to wrestle with the questions that surround the future of nuclear weapons. The map, Nuclear Weapons Status 2005, has not been updated.

See Supplemental Materials for additional resources on this topic.