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The Nuclear Museum can be a scary place for a kid.

That鈥檚 the idea behind the museum鈥檚 new undertaking: an audio tour for children, written and recorded by third graders at Lavaland Elementary School.

sa国际传媒官网网页入口鈥檚 National Museum of Nuclear Science & History chronicles the Atomic Age, which kicked off with the detonation of the world鈥檚 first nuclear weapon in New Mexico 鈥� themes that might make some parents wary, said Gabriel Nemiroff, the museum鈥檚 director of education and chief operations officer.

鈥淥nce I started here, it became evident that nuclear science and history is something that is often perceived as complex and mysterious,鈥� Nemiroff said. 鈥淪o I set about trying to find a way to make the museum more accessible for young people. And I thought, what better way to do that than for young people to hear about the museum from other young people?鈥�

Nemiroff teamed up with Abby Flores, a teacher at Lavaland on sa国际传媒官网网页入口鈥檚 West Side. Flores鈥� third grade students worked on the project, which debuted Thursday, over the course of the school year.

In preparation, Flores鈥� class hit the books studying nuclear science. Students took five field trips to the museum and had a classroom visit from a nuclear engineer.

鈥淥n our first field trip, I just basically said, 鈥楴uclear energy can be used for good and used for bad,鈥欌�� she said. 鈥淎s we were being guided through the museum, we kind of looked at things as, 鈥業s this nuclear energy used for bad? Is this nuclear energy used for good?鈥� That鈥檚 a very nuanced question, because it depends on who you鈥檙e talking to.鈥�

The third-grade voices provide commentary for all sorts of topics at the museum 鈥� the history of nuclear physicist Marie Curie and Albert Einstein's famous letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt warning him of the potential for a German atomic bomb 鈥� are just a few.

鈥淭here was a lot of teaching on my end to get them familiar with the vocabulary,鈥� Flores said. 鈥淢y heart is in literacy, and it really helped these kids in literacy.鈥�

Nemiroff said he and Flores tried to make the myriad uses for nuclear energy as digestible as possible for the class.

鈥淚 think they did a really good job of grasping this large, abstract concept 鈥� the idea that this one niche area of science has this broad capability to create both devastation but also tremendous benefit,鈥� Nemiroff said.

Each student chose their own component of the museum to study and wrote and recorded their tape for the tour using GarageBand.

Mayeli Dozal, 9, chose orange Fiestaware as her subject. The museum has on display several pieces of the dinnerware, which contained low levels of radioactivity in its orange glaze until the early 1970s.

Dozal鈥檚 favorite part of the project?

鈥淭hat we get to use our voices,鈥� she said.

Natalie Robbins covers education for the Journal.  You can reach her at nrobbins@abqjournal.com.