Education and Community
Tech Valley Students Analyze the Cost of War
Special | 1m 45sVideo has Closed Captions
Students at Tech Valley High School weigh the costs and benefits of modern wars.
Tech Valley High School is exploring the true cost of war through a project co-taught by ELA teacher Cat Eisele and U.S. history teacher Tom Morrill. Students are researching the costs and benefits of modern wars to prepare for their right to vote. The project is based on the Costs of War project at Brown University and is featured on the school's website in a podcast.
Education and Community
Tech Valley Students Analyze the Cost of War
Special | 1m 45sVideo has Closed Captions
Tech Valley High School is exploring the true cost of war through a project co-taught by ELA teacher Cat Eisele and U.S. history teacher Tom Morrill. Students are researching the costs and benefits of modern wars to prepare for their right to vote. The project is based on the Costs of War project at Brown University and is featured on the school's website in a podcast.
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(pensive music) - [Student] So what you're saying is, the war wasn't worth it, and that we essentially just threw hundreds of thousands of people's lives away?
- [Student] The cost to prevent an economic crash from loss of oil in the US outweigh the cost of the war.
- [Student] How did the war affect the social political climate in the US?
- The "Cost of War Project" is a project focused on the costs and benefits of war.
Were all of the modern wars that we look at, worth it?
- [Narrator] So to begin, let's explain a little bit about World War I.
- During Covid, we actually had the idea to change this into a podcast.
It allowed them to really look into a modern media, and really work on the ELA aspects of it for me, which is how to construct a podcast.
- In addition to just looking at economic costs, they also had to look at political costs, social costs, human costs.
And then once they did that, they had to do a careful analysis to weigh the cost and benefits.
Those answers come from them, not us, and their own critical thinking.
I want them to not only learn the history, I want them to engage with the history in a way that is relevant to today.
It was just particularly relevant, due to our war Ukraine, right now.
- I think one of the most important things that they're learning is, that not everything is black and white.
In two years or less, they're going to be voters, and having that knowledge of how to get that information, and accurately analyze it, and then use that to inform themselves to be better voters, and better citizens, is really important.
(pensive music)
