Peace and Disarmament Resources for Teachers and Students

The Last Cherry Blossom

Author, Kathleen Burkinshaw’s award-winning, historical fiction, The Last Cherry Blossom (Sky Pony Press, 2016), is about a young girl and her family living in Hiroshima during the last year of WWII. A shocking family secret is discovered right before her world is about to ignite and become a shadow of what it had been. It is based on events in her mother’s life and it’s through her 12-year-old eyes that readers witness the horror of the world’s first atomic bomb. The Last Cherry Blossom is also written with information on the culture, mindset, and daily life during WWII before the atomic bomb-something that has rarely been touched on before.

The author hopes to not only convey the message that nuclear weapons should never be used again; but to also reveal that the children in Japan had the same love for family, fear of what could happen to them, and hopes for peace as the Allied children had. She wants the students/readers to walk away knowing that the ones we may think are our "enemy" are not always so different from ourselves. A message that needs to be heard now more than ever. A discussion guide is available through her website contact sheet.

from Nagasaki to the World

Nagasaki Higashi High School students committed to share message of peace put together a booklet for nuclear disarmament to start a conversation with their peers.

The History of Disarmament as written by Nobel Peace Laureates

For more than a century, in the face of war and conflict, exceptional personalities raised their voices to promote visions of disarmament and a more peaceful world. So many of these advocates were honoured with the Nobel Peace Prize, that a history of this Prize reads as a history of disarmament.

Tutorials on Nuclear Non-Proliferation and the Non-Proliferation Treaty

The Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI), in partnership with the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies (CNS), has developed a new set of educational tutorials on today's non-proliferation challenges. The tutorials are designed to build a basic understanding of these issues for anyone new to the field—including students, young professionals and media—or serve as a refresher course for experienced professionals.

Avoiding Armageddon

Avoiding Armageddon is a companion website to a Public Broadcasting Service (United States) production of the same name. The companion website contains five lesson plans concerning weapons of mass destruction, the many forms of terrorism, and the role of the United Nations. It is geared to high school teachers and students. These teaching activities are designed to help teachers lead thoughtful discussions on several issues including disarmament and non-proliferation.

Children of the Atomic Bomb

Children of the Atomic Bomb is a website developed by Dr. James N. Yamazaki of University of California at Los Angeles. The website contains lesson plans geared to high school and college students to explore themes associated with nuclear disarmament.

The Cold War: Civil Defence or Nuclear Disarmament?

This website by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation offers a lesson plan for students to research the position of civil defense and nuclear disarmament during the Cold War era and participate in a class debate to support a given position.

IAEA Educational Programme in Nuclear Security

Higher education plays an essential role in nuclear security capacity building. It ensures the availability of experts able to provide the necessary competencies for the effective national nuclear security oversight of nuclear and other radioactive material and to establish and maintain an appropriate nuclear regime in a State. This guide provides both the theoretical knowledge and the practical skills necessary to meet the requirements described in the international framework for nuclear security. Emphasis is placed on the implementation of these requirements and recommendations in States. On the basis of this guide, each university should be able to develop its own academic programme tailored to suit the State's educational needs in the area of nuclear security and to meet national requirements.

ICAN

The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) commissioned leading expert Dr. Kathleen Sullivan of the Institute for Disarmament Education Action (IDEA) to generate lesson plans for teaching classroom students and general audiences about nuclear dangers and solutions. The website presents a range of educational tools.

Learn About Nuclear Weapons

The Swedish Physicians against Nuclear Weapons and the Swedish Peace and Arbitration Society have created a website which explores numerous issues associated with nuclear weapons including history, science, international law, and ethics. Learn About Nuclear Weapons is available in 4 languages (English, Swedish, Norwegian and Russian).

Multiple Uses of Chemicals Website

This is an OPCW (Organization for Prohibition of Chemical Weapons) and IUPAC (International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry) joint project whose website provides resource materials to help teachers and students understand the multiple uses of chemicals, learn about the Chemical Weapons Convention, and develop codes of conduct to prevent harmful uses. The material is based on scholars' papers and is presented in an interactive and accessible way which makes it useable with many different kinds of audiences.

The Peace Doves Game

Sponsored by Nobelprize.org, The Peace Doves Game promotes the efforts of people and organizations working toward nuclear disarmament. The cold war is over and many years have passed since the five so-called "Nuclear weapon States" signed a treaty in 1992 committing them to total nuclear disarmament. There are still plenty of nuclear weapons left in the world and you are getting tired of waiting. Out in the far reaches of Space there is a troop of eight "Peace Doves" with magical powers. In this game your mission is to use the worldwide symbol of peace, the white dove, to disarm the world of nuclear weapons!

SADAKO

This website is meant to help educators use the story of SADAKO AND THE THOUSAND PAPER CRANES to teach children about the power of one person to create change, the long term consequences of war, and the values that are cherished by all cultures.

A World Without Weapons

The United Nations Association (Canada) has created a website, "A World without Weapons," which offers six teacher's guides and student's manuals on disarmament and non-proliferation issues. It also provides evaluation tools for both teachers and students and suggests several ways to get involved to promote the cause of disarmament.