Modeling Good Research With Trapped

The book Trapped by Marc Aronson tell the story of the 33 Chilean miners who were rescued from a mine in 2010 after more than 2 months underground. The story is well told and includes lots of great background about the science of mining and how various technologies were developed or put to use in rescuing the men. I enjoyed the story, although it was a little short. The main text of the book ends on page 94 and is followed by a lot of supplemental materials.

These appendices would be great to explore in a classroom setting with students, to ask them what they add to the book and why they are important. The appendices are:

• A list of the 33 miners and their ages
• A timeline of the accident and rescue operation
• A glossary
• An article by a former miner, "The World of the Miner"
• "How I Wrote This Book" by the author, with the subtitle/explanation "and what I learned that could be useful for students writing research reports (and a couple of last thoughts from men I interviewed)"
• Notes and Sources
• Bibliography
• Interviews
• Useful Websites
• Acknowledgements
• Index

Wow! Just about every sort of supplementary piece of information you could think of. Put this together with the photos in the center and the detailed table of contents, and there are some fantastic points of discussion.

The "How I Wrote This Book" piece could stand on its own and might even be something to start with before reading the book. Aronson talks about how different it was writing this book compared with his others, because it was a current event. He could not rely on any books, but had to do online and by interviewing people. He points out the differences between using books and news accounts with specific examples. Here are a few quotes from the essay:

"The real gems of the Net do not show up in convenient order on a search page. You only find them when you know what questions to ask."

 "The great advantage of books is that the knowledge in them has been cooked. Someone had time to think about what he or she wanted to say and how best to say it."

 "Dr. Holland has some advice to any young person who wants to be an astronaut ... : You must read, a lot. Read about people who were in extreme circumstances ... Study what skills allowed men and women to do the impossible, to rise to a challenge, and what held them back."

Trapped has a lot of possibilities for classroom use. It ties into science and geography curriculum, it tells a compelling and heroic story that will appeal to both girls and boys, and the text of the book is actually quite short. It includes a number of diagrams, and I would supplement it with some maps (which are sadly and surprisingly not included.) It is not yet available in paperback, but the hardcover came out in August 2011, so perhaps it will be out soon.