Use these questions or activities to help gauge students’ familiarity with and spark their interest in the context of the work, giving them an entry point into the text itself.

Short Answer

1. What do you know about how a nuclear war or nuclear accident would impact human beings and the environment? List three or four of the most important impacts.

Teaching Suggestion and Helpful Links: As students make their lists, point out the differences between a local and a global event. Reassure them that the likelihood of a global nuclear event is very small in today’s world, and explain that most nuclear events are local meltdowns at nuclear energy plants—and that even these are very rare.

• a brief but informative article intended to give a younger audience information about nuclear radiation’s impact on humans and the environment
• Ready.gov’s information sheet on nuclear explosions
• This article about nuclear plant meltdowns from Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists offers some reassuring background for students who might live in proximity to a nuclear plant.

2. Do you think it is important to be loyal and obedient to a leader during a time of crisis? Why or why not? Under what circumstances might this be a bad idea? What should be done about an ineffective leader during a crisis?