MbShea@PWP@English@UMCP

Beginning: Paint a picture of the situation in Orange County, NJ in the 1920’s from the perspective of one of the young women. Suggest most people do not know about what happened to the radium girls and what lasting impacts they had on health and regulation policies in the United States, and that their story must be known.
Middle: Essentially a brief background for students to understand the events of what happened.
1) Talk about the discovery of radium by Marie Curie, the sensationalization of radium in the context of the war, and how it was portrayed in the media
2) Talk about the appeal of the watch painting job to the young women in the working class, what that job entitled, and the health effects of radium on the young girls
3) How the employers and the United States Radium Corporation handled accusations of radium being harmful
4) Results of the lawsuits and how this case changed health and regulation laws (Have specific examples of laws/safety policies that were enacted as a result, for future projects).
End: Include some open ended questions/essay prompts that teachers can use as a worksheet resource in class, and a list of resources to guide this topic. (ex: a documentary link, firsthand accounts from the girls themselves, historian accounts, etc.)
LOGOS:
1) Background of the discovery of radium and media portrayal of radium (the outstanding mindset about radium in the 1920’s)
2) Firsthand accounts from the girls that worked for the United States Radium Corporation in Orange County, NJ
3) Doctor accounts of what symptoms they saw in the girls
4) Documentation of court cases and hearings.
PATHOS: one specific case study focused on the events of Orange County, NJ

ETHOS: credibility of historians, firsthand accounts/journals from the radium girls and their respective doctors, science journalists

STRUCTURE: I will use four structures:
1) Tell a Story 2) Illustration of main concepts 3) Worksheet resources 4) List of resources/media for teacher to use

GOAL: Educate high school students about this significant 1920’s event, which was an example of how science and technology could occur within a social and public health context, so that they can better understand how health and regulation laws in the United States have evolved and so that they can be introduced to a public health career path.

E, do you have a teacher to send this to? I can offer two: AP bio in FL and AP US History at Eleanor Roosevelt in Greenbelt.

I would use formal APA sources in the student portion, as one way to model the ethos of citation. Title?

Radium Girls: When Green Goes Bad