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Nuclear and Radioactivity Physics
Resources, Classroom Activities, Assessment Ideas, IT Applications, Fukushima
Resources
Text Resources
- Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation 1992, A Nuclear Source: A Resource Kit for Teachers, ANSTO, Sydney, NSW.
- Caro, McDonell & Spicer 1980, Modern Physics, 3rd edn, Edward Arnold, London.
- Hall, EJ 1984, Radiation and Life, 2nd edn, Pergamon Press, New York.
- Hutton, D & Penna, C 1988, Ionising Radiation: An Australian Source Book, Faculty of Education, Monash University, Melbourne.
- Milliken, R 1986, No Conceivable Injury, Penguin.
- Pochin, E 1983, Nuclear Radiation: Risks and Benefits, Oxford University Press.
- United Nations Environment Program 1985, Radiation Doses, Effects, Risks.
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A Word document about the radioactive isotope, Fluorine 18. The article describes its production, decay, half life and its use as a radioactive tracer. There are links to an Age article as well as the ANSTO press release and wikipaedia sites on the radio-pharmaceuticals. | |||
Audiovisual Resources
It is recommended that teachers should view any video before purchase.
- Marcom Projects: Nuclear physics, Radioisotopes at Work
- ABC: Quantum – Radioactivity
Classroom Activities
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This is a prac that simulates radioactive decay using either dice or wooden blocks. It has an option to use Excel to analyse the data. | |||
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A prac that uses a Protactinium (Pa) source. Details on how to make a Pa source can be found in the prac book "Guide to Year 11 Physics" by Tait and Boydell. Pa has a short life so that the count rate dies down to background in about five minutes. The prac is down as a class prac with two students reading and supplying data to the rest of the class. One student counts down the clock for each 20 second interval, the other student reads the geiger counter and calls out the progressive total count. | |||
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Practical activities for radioactivity, student sheet and teaching notes. Geiger counter, cloud chamber, low activity sources, dice simulation of radioactive decay. | |||
Code of Practice for the Safe Use of Ionising Radiation in secondary schools (1986).
An ARPANSA pdf file of 17 pages covering modes of radiation exposure, shielding, dose limits, responsibility, general rules, X-ray generators, By-product X-radiation, general control of radioactive sources, sealed sources, unsealed sources, references and appendices.
Assessment Ideas
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Radioisotope Poster Presentation - involving student research and presentation. | |||
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Handout outlining an assessment task requiring students to prepare a presentation in poster or PowerPoint format on an aspect of nuclear energy. | |||
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Assessment criteria sheet for the presentation on an aspect of nuclear energy. | |||
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Radioactivity and Nuclear Energy Presentation (This is a research task using written references and the Internet. Students are to produce a newspaper report, a PowerPoint presentation or a web page. Topic cards are selected at random so that all students research a different topic. Swapping of cards is fine with me, as is negotiating another topic.) | |||
IT Applications
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An Excel worksheet that simulates radioactive half life using random numbers, like rolling dice. In cell 2 you enter the number of sides you want on the dice (any whole number bigger than 2). The worksheet then rolls 1000 dice, counts the number of 2's, and then deducts them from the 1000 dice. This continues for 50 rolls of the dice. Pressing shift+F9 will recalculate the worksheet. Included is a graph of Dice remaining vs roll number. If you do this for a 3, 6, 9, and 12 sided dice it shows how the half life changes with the probability of getting a 2. Alternatively since the values are in columns you can copy and paste them into a graphing program. We use Autograph. It is heaps better than Excel and you can zoom in to show the halflife value in detail. You can also do a 6th order line of best fit through the data points. I will include some screenshots showing this. Contributed by Brendon Beard. | |||
Useful Websites
Nuclearinfo.net
A University of Melbourne, a School of Physics website, that provides authoritative information about Nuclear Power.
Meltdown at Three Mile Island
Contains information about the meltdown at Pennsylvania's Three Mile Island nuclear power plant, including a timeline and facts on key people and events, plus a teacher's guide. Also outlines the episode of the PBS series "The American Experience" relating to the Three Mile Island accident.
Info on Radiocarbon Dating
An informational site dedicated to the process of carbon-14 dating of archaelogical findings. Details the process of C14 dating, the history of C14 dating and links to further information.
Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency (ARPANSA)
An Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency (ARPANSA) website contains information of Radiation basics and fact sheets on Radiation and Health, as well as technical reports. The Code of Practice for secondary schools is also available, see above.
Radioactive Waste Management in Australia
Provided by the Department of Energy, Resources and Tourism, the site offers information about radioactive waste management in Australia. Included are media releases, publications, fact sheets, project backgrounds and frequently asked questions.
I am radioactive! or my technetium scintigraphy: You tube
A Youtube video (9:53 min) A young woman monitors her radioactivity before during and after a Technetium examination of her thyroid. She has an autoimmune disease that attacks the thyroid. She uses a geiger counter reading in microsieverts per hour to measure the count. She speaks with the doctor in German, but in English to the camera and in the narration. She shows the gamma ray scan of her thyroid and observes the count over the following hours. She also tests the radioactivity of her urine, as well as the sediment from its distillation. You can also check her flickr for more results. She also answers the many questions from viewers, including the difference between Tc-99m and Tc-99 and how the Tc targets a particular organ.
Finding Uranium in Nature: You tube
A Youtube video (9:51 min) The young woman from the Technetium video goes to a Uranium mine. She measures the radioactivity on the way to the mine and among the rubble. There is a short section when she goes underground with the engineer speaking in German, but the sections after that are quite useful. She finds samples of uranium ore, revealing that the radiation quickly drops off with distance. Back at home she tests with UV light.
Mouth Cancer Radiation Therapy: You tube
A Youtube video (7:07 min) The linear accelerator gives 6 exposures from different angles. The face mask that stabilises the head can be seen. There is no narration, juts the noise of the machine. The young woman from the Technetium video answers posted questions.
Radioactivity in a nuclear medicine room: You Tube
You tube video (5:03 min) The young woman, bionerd23, from the Technetium video, is visiting a nuclear medicine room where a patient is about to have radiation doses temporarily inserted to treat prostate cancer. She gives the geiger counter readings in the room, then goes to the control room for readings during the dose. She subsequently puts the geiger counter inside the room for the next treatment with the display visible through the window.
Applets
Decay Series
An applet by Walter Fendt. It displays isotopes in an Atomic number by Mass number table. The user clicks the "next decay" to show an arrow for the next step in the decay series as well as the nuclear equation. This can continue until a stable isotope is reached. Four decay series are available.
Law of radioactive decay
An applet by Walter Fendt, it displays a rectangular arrays of red dots, which go black when they decay. When you select 'Start', the 'atoms' begin to randomly decay. Underneath the array is a tally of the number already decayed and those that have not, as well as time in fractions of the half life. There is a 'pause' button, but the half life cannot be changed.