Oct. 3-9, 2013, Current Events Lesson Plan
Current Event:
The 2013 Nobel Prizes were awarded for physiology or medicine, physics, and chemistry. Three scientists won the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for discoveries showing how insulin and other vital materials are transported and delivered to targets within and between cells of the body. Working separately, the three scientists investigated the networks of tiny cavities, called vesicles, which make up the transport system. Two scientists were awarded the Nobel Prize in physics for theorizing the existence of a subatomic particle that gives mass to other particles with that property. This particle, which became known as the Higgs boson, is so fundamental to the nature of matter that it has been called the “god particle.” Three scientists won the Nobel Prize in chemistry for their work in designing powerful computer models that are widely used to study an amazing variety of complex chemical interactions. Using programs based on their models, researchers can study the behavior of large molecules as well as the atoms and electrons in them.
Objective:
The Nobel Prizes are awarded each year to people who have made valuable contributions to the “good of humanity.” Alfred Nobel, the Swedish chemist and industrialist who invented dynamite, established the Nobel Prizes. Nobel wanted the profits from explosives to be used to reward human ingenuity. The prizes, first established in 1901, remain the most honored prizes in the world. They are given for the most important discoveries or inventions in the fields of physics, chemistry, and physiology or medicine; the most distinguished literary work of an idealistic nature; and the most effective work in the interest of international peace. A sixth prize–the Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel–was first awarded in 1969. Prizewinners receive their awards on December 10, the anniversary of the death of Alfred Nobel. The peace prize is awarded in Oslo, Norway. The other prizes are presented in Stockholm, Sweden. The Behind the Headlines news stories and related World Book articles explore various sciences and the Nobel Prizes.
Words to know:
- Alfred Nobel
- Cell
- Chemistry
- Computer modeling
- Higgs boson
- Insulin
- Large Hadron Collider
- Medicine
- Nobel Prizes
- Particle accelerator
- Physics
Discussion Topics:
1. Ask your students to name some well-known Nobel Prize winners. (Students might say Winston Churchill; Marie Curie; Albert Einstein; Alexander Fleming; Ernest Hemingway; Martin Luther King, Jr.; Nelson Mandela; Barack Obama; Theodore Roosevelt, Mother Teresa; Desmond Tutu.)
2. Nobel Prize winners get a cash prize. Ask your students to debate, “Nobel Prize winners should donate all of their prize money to charity.”
3. Among the people who never won a Nobel Prize are Cesar Chavez, Mohandas Gandhi, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Raoul Wallenberg. Have your students research these people (or someone else they choose) and debate which person most deserved to win a Nobel Prize.
4. Ask your students to use the World Book’s Timelines feature to create a timeline of well-known Nobel Prize winners. (Students may wish to use the six tables in World Book’s Nobel Prizes article for help.) Or, students can make a timeline of women Nobel Prize winners or Nobel Prize winners from a specific country.