Classroom Resources: Nuclear Chemistry
1 – 17 of 17 Classroom Resources
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Radioactive Isotopes, Half Lives, Alpha/Beta/Gamma Decay | High School
Activity: Nuclide Stability Investigation
In this activity, students will examine the relationship between the stability of an isotope, its half-life, and the make-up of its nucleus.
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Half Lives | High School
Activity: Nuclear Medicine Half-Lives
In this activity, students will model two half-life scenarios related to nuclear medicine. Through this activity they will learn how to describe half-lives through explanations, calculations, particulate diagrams, and graphs as well as analyze the benefits of long and short half-lives through the context of nuclear medicine.
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Radioactive Isotopes, Half Lives, History | High School
Lesson Plan: Radiocarbon Dating and Willard Libby
In this lesson, students will learn about the development and application of radiocarbon dating through an article reading. There are a series of activities to help promote literacy in the science classroom related to the reading. This lesson could be easily used as plans for a substitute teacher, as most of the activities are self-guided.
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Half Lives, Alpha/Beta/Gamma Decay, Radioactive Isotopes | High School
Activity: Graphical Analysis of Nuclear Decay
In this activity, students analyze a series of graphs and data points to discover a pattern, and realize the meaning of a half-life. During this investigation, students will make connections between the concepts of nuclear decay, radiation and the Law of Conservation of Mass.
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Radioactive Isotopes, Half Lives, Subatomic Particles, Periodic Table | High School
Activity: Why are Some Isotopes Radioactive?
In this activity, students use periodic trends and data to make predictions about what makes an isotope radioactive. They will then verify or refine their predictions using a PhET simulation.
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Radioactive Isotopes, Half Lives | High School
Activity: Radioactive Decay and Seafloor Data
In this activity, students will apply their understanding of radioactive decay to analyze and interpret the meaning of Atlantic seafloor isotope data. Students will then use their results to suggest past changes that have occurred with the seafloor
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Radioactive Isotopes, Half Lives | High School
Activity: Radioactive Decay and Peat Bogs
In this activity, students will apply their understanding of radioactive decay to establish that radiometric dating (specifically C-14) can be used to reliably determine the age of Earth’s materials.
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Half Lives, Radioactive Isotopes | High School
Activity: Investigating Exponential Decay
In this activity, students will learn about radioactivity, exponential decay, and half-life through two hands-on experiences.
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Alpha/Beta/Gamma Decay, Half Lives, Radiation, Radioactive Isotopes, Isotopes, Atomic Mass, Subatomic Particles | High School
Activity: Radiological Applications of Isotopes
In this lesson, students will apply their knowledge of nuclear notation using trading cards to investigate and discuss the applications of isotopes in the medical field. The conclusion of the activity includes a summative assessment where students must advertise the radiological services using their knowledge of isotopes and their medical applications
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Half Lives, Radioactive Isotopes, Radiation, Phase Changes | High School
Activity: Radioactive Dating: The Demise of Frosty
In this activity students will investigate the idea that carbon dating is based on gathering evidence in the present and extrapolating it to the past. Students will use a simple graph to extrapolate data to its starting point and then pool the data to make a graph that simulates half-life. Students will be introduced to solving mathematical problems that involve half-life.
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Radioactive Isotopes, Radiation, Half Lives, Atomic Structure, Subatomic Particles, Model of the Atom, History | Middle School, High School
Activity: Marie Curie Video Questions
In this activity, students will watch a short video and learn about Marie Curie, her Nobel Prizes, radiation experiments, and discovery of new elements.
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Radioactive Isotopes, Half Lives | High School
Activity: Using Dice to Explore Radioactive Decay
In this activity, students will use dice to simulate the radioactive “decay” of samples of two different elements with two different half-lives. At the end of the simulation, all the groups will pool their data (by round) and then the class results will be graphed. The graphs will be analyzed to illustrate the process of radioactive decay and to determine the half-life of each element in the fictitious time units of “rounds”.
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Half Lives, Radioactive Isotopes, Radiation | High School
Simulation: Half-Life Investigation
In the March 2017 simulation, students will have the opportunity to investigate the decay of two samples of unstable atoms. Students will interact with the simulation in order to decay the unstable samples resulting in a visual and graphical interpretation of half-life.
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Half Lives, Radioactive Isotopes, Radiation | High School
Activity: Simulation Activity: Half-Life Investigation
In this simulation, students will have the opportunity to investigate the decay of two samples of unstable atoms. Students will interact with the simulation in order to decay the unstable samples resulting in a visual and graphical interpretation of half-life.
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Radioactive Isotopes, Radiation, Half Lives, History | Elementary School, Middle School, High School
Video: Marie Curie Video
This video tells the story about Marie Curie, including her Nobel Prizes, radiation experiments, and discovery of new elements. Irene Curie is also mentioned.
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Half Lives, Graphing | High School
Lab: Twizzler Half-Life
In this lab, students will better understand the concept of half-lives.
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Half Lives | High School, Middle School
Lab: Half-Life
In this lab, students visualize the random nature of atomic decay (or first order chemical reactions) and also helps them realize the important difference between macroscale and microscale phenomena.