Pesticides: Blessing, Curse, or Both?

The 1948 Nobel Prize in Medicine went to Paul Müller, who discovered DDT's power as a persistent insecticide that could greatly reduce typhus epidemics and other hazards. The Nobel presentation speech makes the case for DDT's value, and selections from Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring" offer evidence of DDT's hazards.

In this module, students wrestle the question of whether the chemical did indeed deserve the honor it received. Main steps of the learning process include:

• A close reading process that probes the Nobel speech.
• An task engagement process to set up the main teaching task
• A research reading process that studies Carson's evidence for each of her claims.
• A transition to writing in which students connect Carson's evidence to an "informed reading" of the Nobel speech's claims.
• A writing process in which students establish and support a claim about whether the pesticide discovery deserved the prize.