October 2-8, 2014 Current Events Lesson Plan
Current Event: Inventors of Blue LED Honored with Nobel in Physics
Three scientists won the 2014 Nobel Prize in physics for their invention of the energy-efficient blue light-emitting diode (LED). In a press release announcing the award, the Nobel Foundation said the blue LED has revolutionized lighting. “In the spirit of Alfred Nobel,” the foundation said, “the Prize rewards an invention of greatest benefit to mankind; using blue LEDs, white light can be created in a new way. With the advent of LED lamps we now have more long-lasting and more efficient alternatives to older light sources.” When electric current flows through an incandescent light bulb, most of it is transformed into heat. But in an LED, almost all of the electric current results in light. Because LED’s use electric power much more efficiently than traditional incandescents do, some LED’s can last 100 times as long as incandescent bulbs and 10 times as long as fluorescent bulbs.
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 story and related World Book articles explore various sciences and the Nobel Prizes.
Words to know:
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. 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.
3. Alfred Nobel was the inventor of dynamite. In 1888, a French newspaper accidentally published his obituary (his brother was the one actually who died) and referred to Alfred as “The merchant of death … who became rich by finding ways to kill more people faster than ever before ….” Some people believe that Nobel was so horrified at what he read that he established the Nobel Prizes to rescue his legacy. Ask your students to debate, “It is important for people to leave behind a good legacy.”
4. Ask your students to use World Book’s Timelines feature to view or add to the Inventions that Changed the World timeline. (Students may wish to use the “The history of inventions” section of World Book’s Invention article for help.)