Chemistry, Society, and Civic Engagement (Part 2): Uranium and American Indians

Uranium and American Indians is the first chemistry course in the University of Wisconsin System that meets the ethnic studies requirement for general education. As one of the 2004 model courses for the national SENCER project (Science Education for New Civic Engagements and Responsibilities), this course teaches through a complex, current, and contested set of issues facing a community of people to the underlying scientific principles. More specifically, the course explores the connections between the national need for uranium, the health and environmental effects of mining and milling the uranium ore, and the Navajo people (the Diné) who lived and are still living on the land where the ore was found.