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Welcome
to the CNS Critical Issues Forum
The
James Martin Center
for Nonproliferation Studies (CNS) developed the Critical Issues
Forum (CIF) to increase awareness of disarmament and nonproliferation
issues and to engage and recruit the next generation of nonproliferation
specialists. Specifically, CIF is designed to involve pre-college high school
students and their teachers in issues of proliferation and control of
weapons of mass destruction.
View the "Critical Issues Forum" video to see what this "real world" project is all about.
The
CIF Program is supported by grants from the U.S.
Department of Energy and the Ford
Foundation and hosted at The Center for Nonproliferation Studies (CNS) at the Monterey Institute of International Studies.
News for the 2011-2012 CIF Project Year
UPDATE: Resources from the CIF Teacher Workshop held in Monterey, California, Dec 1-3, 2011, are now available. Click "Resource Links" on the left side menu.
CIF Information from previous project years
2010 - 2011
The CIF 2010-2011 Student Conference was held April 28-30, 2011, in Monterey, California. The conference report is available. The conference agenda is available as a PDF file.
The CIF 2010-2011 topic is "Nuclear Energy and Nuclear Weapons in the Middle East." The CIF Teacher Workshop (agenda available) was held in Monterey, California, from November 18-20, 2010. Teacher participants were from nine U.S. schools, one Chinese school, two Russian schools and NCEIC (Nuclear Cities Education and Information Center in Novouralsk, RU). A report on the workshop is available.
The CIF 2010 Benchmarks and Learning Objectives are available.
Student responses to the 2010-2011 Benchmarks are available as they are submitted and revised.
Schools participating in this year's CIF project can be found at the High Schools link to the left.
2009 - 2010
The CIF 2009-2010 topic was "Nuclear Nonproliferation: Global Opportunities and Regional Challenges." The CIF student conference was held in Monterey, California, US, from April 22-24, 2010, at the Casa Munras Hotel.
A conference report is available on the CNS website. Student work on the CIF topic for this year is now available. Videos of some of the school presentations at the conference are available in the conference report.
Critical Issues Forum Student Conference 2010 participants
The Benchmarks and Learning Objectives for the 2009-2010 Critical Issues Forum topic are available. A list of participating schools for the 2009-2010 school year is available.
The Fall Teacher Workshop (agenda and presentations are available) was held November 12-14, 2009, in Monterey, California. Teacher participants were from thirteen U.S. schools, two Russian schools and NCEIC (Nuclear Cities Education and Information Center in Novouralsk, RU). The CIF Workshop Report is available on the CNS web site.
Teacher Workshop Participants November 2009
2008 - 2009
The CIF topic for 2008 - 2009 was "Nuclear Disarmament: Challenges, Opportunities and Next Steps." Check the "Program Materials" link in the left-side menu for details.
Critical Issues Forum 2009 Conference Participants
at the Monterey Hyatt April 23-25, 2009
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The CIF Student Conference was held April 23-25, 2009, in Monterey, California. Here is a Monterey Herald article about the CIF conference
- Here is a report by Masako Toki, CIF Project Manager, about the 2009 CIF Student Conference
- The CIF 2009 Student Conference Agenda is available. From the agenda, you can link to the student benchmarks, conference presentations and videos of the conference. The agenda is also available as a .PDF file (752KB)
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Spring 2009 Student Responses to Benchmarks and Conference Presentations are available.
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The CIF 2008 - 2009 Teacher Workshop was held December 4 - 6, 2008, in Monterey, California. The agenda and participant list for the workshop are available. Two Russian high schools, the Nuclear Cities Education Information Center, 11 US high schools and six US high school observers participated.
- "U.S. and Russian High School Teachers Discuss Nuclear Disarmament at the Critical Issues Forum Teacher Development Workshop" - CNS Feature Story by Masako Toki on the CNS web site.
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A report on the CIF 2008 - 2009 Teacher Workshop by CIF Project Manager Masako Toki is available.
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The CIF Benchmarks for 2008 - 2009 that guided student work are available.
2007 - 2008
The
CIF topic for 2007 - 2008 was "Nuclear Renaissance:
Benefits vs. Risks."
Critical Issues Forum 2008 Conference Participants
2006 - 2007
CIF
Background Information
CIF
provides students with instruction and guidance in research methodologies,
including brainstorming, evaluation of content, synthesis of information,
and writing. CIF emphasizes strategies that can be used with the
Internet. The program involves nonproliferation specialists, scientists,
and other professionals from the James
Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Monterey
Institute of International Studies, NASA,
the Naval Postgraduate
School and the Defense
Language Institute to ensure accuracy and appropriateness of
content.
Critical
Issues Forum is a national and international program originally
created in 1996, the brainchild of Rick Alexander and Bill Robertson
both of whom were at that time working at Los
Alamos National Lab. The forum was designed to address the need
of today’s high students to move beyond the anachronistic
high school curriculum and examine contemporary topics using a Critical
Thinking Curriculum Model. The first topic looked at the development
of nuclear physics and the making of the atomic bomb during the
Manhattan
Project of World War II.
Each
year Rick and Bill added more high schools to the project and, with
the aid of a core team of teachers including Sue Ann (Dobbyn) Jones,
wrote several more modules dealing with terrorism, disposition of
nuclear materials, nuclear nonproliferation, and biological and
chemical warfare. In 1997 CIF spread to the Lawrence
Livermore National Laboratory where it was headed by Dr. Stephen
Sesko. Dr. Sesko is now celebrating his 12 year anniversary with
CIF.
Early
in its history, CIF involved U.S. high schools from five western
states. By 2002 - 2003, the CIF project
included 13 high schools nationwide plus
international participants from five high schools in Russia and
one in the U.K. In 2003 - 2004 a total of 26 schools, 16 in the
U.S. and 10 in Russia, participated. By 2004-2005, 11 schools
in Russia plus 17 in the U.S. participated along with an observer
from Japan.
CIF
Programs since 2000
http://www.criticalissuesforum.org/index.html
updated 05 December 2011
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