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1. Description of Our Team
Our team is made of 4 students, 2 girls and 2 boys: Apoorva -15, Amanpreeet-15, Sanchit -17 and Shantam 17.We have decided to take up the challenge of a “Doors to Diplomacy” project because it seemed like a highly exciting venture. The subject we selected – “Nuclear technology' is definitely among the most important issues of the modern world and we consider that everyone should be informed about what a crucial role it plays in one's life. As the word nuclear is heard people tend to think about bombs, explosion etc.But this is not nuclear energy.So we decided to change this misconception! Working in a team means using the great skills that each one of us has and that is what we did: Sanchit did most of the research & collected the material as to how the peaceful use of this technology was being promoted, Amanpreet and Apoorva worked upon collecting material for the purpose of helping people understand the very basics of nuclear science and Shantam helped with the hosting and the website. Together we also surveyed a number of people, both students and citizens of our town, and we drew the conclusions. Our adult coaches have been: Ms. Shweta Maheshwari and Ms. Kanchan Chatli who have each helped us with books, ideas, guidance, and checking our final drafts.
2. Summary of Our Project
Our project aims to end the common misconceptions and presumptions about, perhaps, the 'most controversial technology' of the current times. The thing to ponder over is that the very 'fundamental' idea- 'Nuclear technology= Explosions, environment-polluting power plants, nuclear bombs, destruction' which makes this technology so controversial is itself fundamentally flawed. With a belief that 'Only awareness can drive out misconceptions', this project tries to make people aware of the various unrealised applications of nuclear science. The project with its entire collection of information on the fundamentals of nuclear science, history, its relative advantages and disadvantages, what is being done to eliminate the disadvantages, common uses, basically everything about nuclear technology, tries to develop a mass realization that this technology has been an age-old victim of faulty interpretation. With its interactive features, we hope that this project can increase understanding about this technology amonst the people and makes them re-examine what they have mistakenly believed about this technology.
3. Our Computer and Internet Access
A. Percentage of students using the Internet at home:more than 50%
B. Number of workstations with Internet access in the classroom:4-6
C. Connection speed used in the classroom:dedicated connection
D. Number of years our classroom has been connected to the Internet:2-3
4. Problems We Had To Overcome
The problems a normal Doors to Diplomacy project involves are time management problems, examinations, very less time for research work and so on. Apart from these problems, we had a very grave problem in hiding. For us, the biggest problem was our theme itself- 'Nuclear Technology'. Whenever we tried to find any information about this technology, we encountered an immense tide of information which presented this technology in a false manner. So the real challenge for us was to actually search for highly credible sources, which present this technology in its pure and fundamental form, a challenge which is way tougher than what it sounds. Although we were intimated about this nature of our topic in the starting itself by our adult coaches, but the magnitude of this problem was shocking. We could very well see what actually caused such a large number of misconceptions among the general public, irrelevant theories, purely fictional what-if scenarios, mis-qoutes etc. All this eventually doubled the time we took for the development of this project.
5. Our Project Sound Bite
To spread awareness among public so that the controversial 'Nuclear Technology' is turned into a 'New Clear Technology'
6. How did your activities and research for this Doors to Diplomacy Project support standards, required coursework and curriculum standards?
The project helped us to realize hidden potential- not just of this technology, but our own too. While the project increased our general knowledge and awareness to great extents, the entire process helped us understand our real capabilities, the largest of which was to function as a team, to listen and learn from others. It helped us learn new techniques of researching and even about the unrealised extent to which we can use our search-engines, browsers and softwares.The biggest learning from this project was as to how we the youth are the ambassadors of change. The experience of our elders and the freshness, curiousness and never-say-die attitude of the youth is definitely what the world requires at this point of time. We realized that the problem of misconceptions about nuclear technology is not just based on whether one is educated or not and definitely does not depend upon how rich or poor someone is. We even realised the hazardous potential of uncleared doubts and unanswered questions in our lives. We all have benefited immensely from the entire process of development of this project.
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