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Historian’s Corner: WSST Stories: Field Trip Memories
By Karyl Rosenberg
As planning for the 2022 Comeback Conference moves forward, the field trip plans are developing quickly. Be sure to check the conference information section of this issue to learn more about this year’s plans.
Looking back over some memories of past field trips, it turns out that Rod Dymesich and I have a common field trip memory from two different conferences; we both visited the reactor at the Dairyland Power Cooperative Nuclear Power Plant at Genoa, WI!
Rod visited the plant while attending his first WSST Conference in 1994. One of the first things he noticed was that the reactor was built by Allis-Chalmers Manufacturing Company of West Allis, WI - a company better known for its farm tractors. In fact, the reactors came to be nicknamed “tractor reactors”, something that caught Rod’s attention because he knows a lot about tractors. He remembers visiting the control room, learning about the safety procedures, and then receiving a radiation badge before visiting the reactor room.
Once in the reactor room, the specific reactor operation was explained as well as the storage of spent fuel rods. The rods looked silvery in color and were stored under water. Rod took pictures with his 35mm film camera-when the developed film came back there were spots on the film from the radiation and the spent fuel rods looked green! He was amazed to see how the nuclear power generation worked.
Six years earlier, I also visited the same power plant. In 1988 it was only about two years since the reactor was shut down and the long term “mothballing” of the plant was just getting started. We were required to wear goggles, shoe coverings, and the radiation badges were the very first protective item we got when we entered the building. We did not get into the fuel storage area because the spent rods stored there at that time were still too radioactive! How things can change with the passing of time.
What other field trip stories are out there? Let us know where you have been! Send your stories to historian@wsst.org.
“Genoa Generating Station and La Crosse Boiling Water Reactor - Wisconsin” by Tony Webster is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0
Leadership in Effective Science for All — Equity!
By Kevin Anderson This past summer, DPI leadership received some critical comments on the joint DPI/WSST Equity Position Statement. Due to these comments, these leaders (past Superintendent cabinet) asked me to take this equity statement off the DPI website and revise it. I took the feedback to the new WSST Equity Committee, who revised the statement and shared those revisions with the board. I’m proud to say that on November 4th the WSST Board discussed the statement, made some suggestions, and re-adopted it for the organization! You can find the full text of the revised statement below. I’m still waiting to see whether or not the new DPI leadership will accept it.
In the meantime, I want to be mindful that some Wisconsin people have misgivings about current equity work, often because they’ve received misinformation on what it really means (like on Critical Race Theory). With this statement, we want to boldly emphasize the importance of high-quality science instruction for all students and recognize that bias and prejudice is not only part of the larger world, but part of scientific communities too. Clear communication and staying away from or clarifying jargony terms is critical as we share our convictions with integrity.
Writing these ideas now, I feel it’s important to acknowledge that I’m a white, cisgender, hetero, male (Northern European/Scandinavian), from a suburban, Christian, middle class background. That identify frames my perspective on the world, and I also I think it’s important to acknowledge that the WSST Board is all white (and has almost always been all white), though we have the benefit of male/female and urban/rural/suburban perspectives. I hope we can make educators from diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds feel our hope to lead and learn with them through WSST and as science educators in general. We need a wider range of perspectives to innovate and to serve all educators and students well.
The WSST Board and Committees are taking new steps to work within an equity lens. The reports submitted three times annually by all Board and Committee leaders will now include a question about how diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) have been part of their work. Each of the WSST committees plans to take some time in the coming year to reflect on how DEI is part of their work, with the equity committee as a resource for those conversations. The board further plans to have an outside consultant come in and do a more thorough equity audit and support some new organizational thinking in relation to DEI.
It feels a little awkward to feel like a qualified voice for equity and diversity. But, it’s a responsibility we all have, so I’m going to do it anyway. I will probably screw things up a bit and say things in a way that bothers some people, as I’m figuring things out as I go. Luckily, I work as part of a committee of amazing people with different backgrounds. I welcome you joining the equity committee work if you’re interested! Email me (kevin.anderson@dpi.wi.gov). One project we will be working on is an in-depth set of resources, citations, and examples to support the statement below.
On the following page is the revised WSST (and hopefully DPI soon) Equity and Access in Science Education Position Statement. Please read and connect with me and the WSST leadership for any comments and feedback.
