Nuclear Chemistry

Activities Labs Links National Standards

Activities

Before starting this unit, you should send for the "Understanding Radiation Kit." It includes 2 videos, "A Look at Radiation" and "Managing Radiation," along with guidebooks, overheads and handouts, and a poster. You can download the guidebooks: "Understanding Radiation in Our World" and the companion guide with classroom activities .

Try these worksheets on nuclear chemsitry: "Nuclear Energy #1," and "Nuclear Fusion."

Have students calculate their annual radiation dose using the American Nuclear Society's "Radiation Dose Chart."

Use these "Radioactivity" notes and have students fill out the "Radioactive Deay Summary" and do this "Radioactivty" worksheet .

Do this "Half-Life" worksheet.

Try this "Atomic Crossword" with answers .

Or do this "Patterns of Reactivity" crossword puzzle with answers.

Have your students do this "Radioactivity (Half-Life)" activity .

Have students make a cloud chamber, use a geiger counter, and calculate their personal radiation dose with these Nuclear Regulatory Commission activities.

Show this PowerPoint presentation about "Nuclear Power Plants" for the Nuclear Energy Institute.

Try this "Nuclear Chemistry" wordsearch with answers .

Have students do Mr. Guch's "Nuclear Chemistry Worksheet" .

Show this Flash animation with audio of "Radioactive Decay."

Do this "Nuclear" crossword puzzle with answers.

The Teacher's Domain (you must sign up for free) has these activities, "Everyday Radiation," "Fusion: The Hydrogen Bomb," "Nuclear Reaction: Fission," and "Radon Ratiation," which all include a videos.

The Teacher's Domain also has this "Sources of Radiation" activity with a Flash Interactive showing where radiation in our environment is found.

Show this "Radioactivity" slide presentation.

Do Patrick Gormley's "Halflife Worksheet."

Kathleen Gorsky of the NSTA Listserve provided this "Alpha/Beta Emissions Simulation" .

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Labs

Do "The Radioactive Decay of Pennium" lab, a half-life simulation using pennies.

The "Radioactive Decay of Candium" is another half-life simulation but uses candy that students can then eat.

The purpose of the"Alpha Please Leave Home" lab is to find the range of alpha particles and determine if the inverse square law applies.

In the "Penetrating Power" experiment, students demonstrate the interactions of alpha, beta, and gamma radiation with matter.

The purpose of the "Stop That Gamma" experiment is to find the range of gamma rays and determine if the inverse square law applies.

Try Patrick Gormley's online "Halflife of a Radioisotope" experiment.

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Links

A nuclear reactions and decay tutorial with animations: http://ithacasciencezone.com/chemzone/lessons/11nuclear/nuclear.htm

A teacher's guide to the nuclear science wall chart with all files in pdf form: http://www.lbl.gov/abc/wallchart/teachersguide/contents.html

Or try this html tour of the nuclear science wall chart: http://www.lbl.gov/abc/wallchart/guide.html

The "Fusion - Physics of a Fundamental Energy Source" poster explained with a link for oderdering: http://fusedweb.llnl.gov/CPEP/Chart.html

Nuclear energy tutorial: http://nobelprize.org/physics/educational/energy/intro.html

Nuclear energy tutorial with animations: http://reactor.engr.wisc.edu/fission.htm

Half-lives explained with animation: http://www.chem.ox.ac.uk/vrchemistry/Conservation/page34.htm

Fusion inside the stars explained: http://www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/sun/Solar_interior. . .

Good animation of half-lives of various isotopes: http://www.colorado.edu/physics/2000/isotopes/radioactive_decay3.html

How nuclear power works: http://science.howstuffworks.com/nuclear-power.htm

How nuclear radiation works: http://www.howstuffworks.com/nuclear.htm

Teacher lesson plans on radiation: http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/basic-ref/teachers.html

Nuclear chemistry tutorial with practice problems: http://www.shodor.org/unchem/advanced/nuc/

All about nuclear fission with Quicktime videos: http://www.atomicarchive.com/Fission/Fission1.shtml

Nuclear fusion, hydrogen bombs, and neutron bombs with Quicktime videos: http://www.atomicarchive.com/Fusion/Fusion1.shtml

Radiocarbon dating: http://www.c14dating.com/

PBS animation of what happened at Three Mile Island: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/three/sfeature/tmiwhat.html

The nuclear fuel cycle: http://www.uic.com.au/nfc.htm

All about uranium: http://www.uraniumsa.org/index.html

"Operate Your Own Tokamak Reactor" with this Java Applet: http://w3.pppl.gov/~dstotler/SSFD/

Good animation of controlled and uncontrolled chain reactions: http://www.visionlearning.com/library/flash_viewer.php?oid=2746

The nuclear fuel cycle: http://www.uraniumsa.org/fuel_cycle/nfcycle.htm

Tutorial on nuclear fusion in form: http://fusioned.gat.com/images/pdf/what_is_fusion.pdf

Nuclear Power: Our Misunderstood Source of Electricity: http://chem.lapeer.org/Chem1Docs/NuclearArticle.html

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