2009 Teachers Workshop on the Manhattan Project

Atomic Heritage Foundation hosts Manhattan Project workshop for New Mexico teachers

Between Tuesday, June 9, 2009, and Friday, June 12, 2009, twenty five teachers attended the first-ever teachers’ workshop on the Manhattan Project hosted by the Atomic Heritage Foundation. They were housed at St. John’s College in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The event was sponsored by the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management, National Nuclear Security Administration, The Kerr Foundation, Inc., Los Alamos County Council, Los Alamos National Bank, Los Alamos National Laboratory Foundation, and the Albert I. Pierce Foundation.

On Wednesday, history professors Ferenc Szasz and Jon Hunner described the race for the atomic bomb and life at Los Alamos during the war. Science teacher Jay Shelton gave a prop-filled demonstration of the science behind the bomb. The Atomic Heritage Foundation plans to make videos of these lectures available through its website.


After lunch, the teachers shared their previous experiences teaching Manhattan Project history and exchanged curriculum ideas based on the morning’s lectures. They then visited the recently-opened New Mexico History Museum. Erica Garcia, the head of education at the museum, walked teachers through the new exhibition on the Manhattan Project. Afterwards, Jon Hunner led the group on a walking tour of Santa Fe sites (see left). He showed them 109 East Palace, the famous first stop for scientists recruited to work on the Manhattan Project.

The teachers returned to St. John’s for dinner with Jan Biella, deputy state historic preservation officer, and Ellen Bradbury Reid, who grew up in Los Alamos during the Manhattan Project. Reid described the Nagasaki bombing in detail (see right).


On Thursday morning, tour guide Georgia Strickfadden led the teachers to San Ildefonso Pueblo. There, workshop participants met San Ildefonso Governor Leon Roybal, who described his mother’s experience working at Los Alamos during the war. He concluded with a discussion of the pueblo’s current relationship with the Los Alamos National Laboratory.

Teachers then received a lesson on science education from the educational outreach coordinators at Los Alamos’ Bradbury Science Museum. The coordinators demonstrated how they use games and props to discuss the science of the bomb with students at a variety of age levels. Teachers received educational materials from the museum to put to use in their own classrooms.

The next stop was Fuller Lodge, where workshop participants shared a box lunch with Manhattan Project veterans George Cowan and Jay Wechsler. Wechsler and Cowan described their personal experiences at Los Alamos (see below).

Heather McClenahan, of the Los Alamos Historical Society, took the teachers on a walking tour of Bathtub Row and J. Robert Oppenheimer’s house (see right). Ellen McGehee brought the teachers “behind the fence” at Los Alamos, taking them on the first-ever public tour of the TA-18 site of the laboratory, which includes the historic Pond Cabin and the lab where Manhattan Project scientist Louis P. Slotin received a fatal dose of radiation during a criticality demonstration in 1946. After the tour of the Manhattan Project properties, teachers had dinner with members of the Los Alamos Historical Society and Los Alamos County Council at the Central Avenue Grill.

On the final morning of the workshop, Albuquerque Journal reporter John Fleck described his career as a science writer covering the Los Alamos National Laboratory. Afterwards, Greg Mello, from the Los Alamos Study Group, discussed the history of nuclear weapons opposition. Dr. Joseph Suina, the former governor of the Cochiti Pueblo, provided additional insight into the relationship between the pueblos and the Manhattan Project. Brandt Petrasek, Director of Tribal Programs and of the Department of Energy State and Tribal Government Working Group, and Los Alamos NNSA site officer Don Ami also contributed to the discussion.

A working lunch followed the morning’s session. Teachers drafted lesson plans alone and in pairs. After lunch, participants chose to attend one of three concurrent sessions on science with Jay Shelton, New Mexico in World War II with author Nancy Bartlit, or the New Mexico History Museum's Manhattan Project exhibition with museum educator Erica Garcia.

The workshop concluded as the teachers received honoraria for their participation and compensation for their travel expenses. All participants are now eligible to receive graduate credit from the University of New Mexico. A number of teachers expressed interest in returning to participate again. One wrote in her evaluation, “I’ve been attending educational workshops for 10 years, and this is by far the best I have ever attended.” The Atomic Heritage Foundation plans to offer this workshop in 2010 and 2011.