Radioactive World: An Outreach Activity for Nuclear Chemistry, Lecture notes of Nuclear Physics

Download Radioactive World: An Outreach Activity for Nuclear Chemistry and more Lecture notes Nuclear Physics in PDF only on Docsity! Journal of Chemical Education 5/2/20 Page 1 of 19 Radioactive World: An Outreach Activity for Nuclear Chemistry Sierra C. Marker,† Chilaluck C. Konkankit,† Mark C. Walsh‡, Daniel R. Lorey II,† Justin J. Wilson†* †Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853, United 5 States. ‡Cornell Center for Materials Research, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853, United States. These authors contributed equally to this work. ABSTRACT Nuclear chemistry is a topic of great societal importance with applications in the realms of medicine, 10 energy, and national security. Despite its significance, this area receives little attention in both K–12 and undergraduate education. This poor coverage arises in part from the lack of suitable educational resources to illustrate key concepts of nuclear chemistry. Here, we describe the development of two activities for the K–12 classroom, which are designed to assist instructors in communicating several conceptual aspects of nuclear chemistry. The first of these activities is an interactive game, called 15 Isotope Rummy, which has been developed as a Lending Library kit through the Cornell Center for Materials Research (CCMR). This game informs students on the composition of the nucleus and factors that determine nuclear stability with respect to radioactive decay. The second activity, called Radiative versus Radioactive Decay, is designed for instructor-led outreach workshops or demonstrations. This activity gives examples of spontaneous radioactive and stimulated 20 photoluminescent decay. We have performed the activities separately and together in various high school classrooms and as a full workshop at a student conference. Feedback obtained from both teachers and students indicates that these activities are helpful for fostering an understanding of several key concepts in nuclear chemistry. Journal of Chemical Education 5/2/20 Page 2 of 19 GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT 25 KEYWORDS High School / Introductory Chemistry; Demonstrations; Interdisciplinary / Multidisciplinary; Public Understanding / Outreach; Collaborative / Cooperative Learning; Hands-On Learning / Manipulatives; Humor / Puzzles / Games; Inquiry-based / Discovery Learning; Isotopes; Nuclear / Radiochemistry. 30 INTRODUCTION The lack of availability and access to scientific equipment in low-income neighborhoods greatly contributes to the poor understanding of scientific concepts in school districts within these areas.1–3 35 There is increasing concern on the disparities in scientific achievement between students from families with low socioeconomic status versus those from higher class families. In an attempt to counter the socioeconomic gaps in learning, the Cornell Center for Materials Research (CCMR) Educational Journal of Chemical Education 5/2/20 Page 5 of 19 Environmental Health and Safety (EH&S) at Cornell University to make Radiative versus Radioactive Decay a classroom activity. Safety Hazards 95 The Isotope Rummy is a board game, and there are no safety hazards involving this activity. However, the Radiative versus Radioactive Decay workshop activity has minor safety concerns. Photoluminescent materials, comprising non-toxic europium-based powder (alkaline earth metal aluminate oxide doped with europium), are well contained and nonhazardous. However, laser pointers can damage eyes upon direct exposure. To reduce this risk, laser safety glasses should be worn during 100 the photoluminescence exploration activity. Exposure to spontaneous decay from radioactive sources used for demonstration in this activity is relatively low. For example, the activities of the radioactive objects used in Radiative versus Radioactive Decay are exempt from Nuclear Regulatory Commission regulation, and, therefore, do not require special permits for possession and provide no dosimetric concerns to users. These low levels of activity engender no significant exposure concerns for outreach. 105 However, the handling of these radioactive materials should generally be limited to a course instructor. Students will learn about factors that can minimize radioactive exposure from radioactive sources, such as distance, shielding, and exposure time. DESCRIPTION OF ISOTOPE RUMMY A complete list of materials and instructions for Isotope Rummy are shown in Table S1 and Figures S1 110 and S2, Supporting Information (SI). Design of the Cards There are three different sets of cards in Isotope Rummy including isotope cards, wild cards, and stable cards (Figure 1). Isotope cards (representative card shown in Figure 1a) are separated by element and mass number. The wild cards and stable cards both have actions associated with them 115 (Figures 1b and 1c). The wild cards also contain real-world applications and facts about the corresponding isotope. The different isotope cards are worth varying amounts of points, and the suggested scoring is shown in Table S2 (SI). Journal of Chemical Education 5/2/20 Page 6 of 19 120 Figure 1. Three different sets of cards included in the Isotope Rummy game are (a) isotope cards, (b) wild card (front and back sides), and (c) stable cards (front and back sides). Design of the Cards The game board is a modified version of the periodic table, which was truncated for manageability and simplification of the activity (Figure 2). There are three major components to the board including 125 placement locations of the isotope cards, wild cards, and stable cards (Figure S1, SI). Additionally, the game board indicates that clear marbles represent protons and blue marbles represent neutrons. Journal of Chemical Education 5/2/20 Page 7 of 19 Figure 2. The Isotope Rummy game board. Design of the Game 130 The game rules and detailed instructions are described in the tutorials and Figure S2 (SI). The objective of Isotope Rummy is to be the first person or team to earn 100 points by obtaining isotope cards (scoring is shown in Table S2, SI). The point system is designed such that a greater amount of points will be awarded for obtaining a stable isotope card. In each turn, students will begin by rolling the dice; the numbers obtained from the dice roll will signify the amount of “protons” or “neutrons” 135 (clear or blue marbles, respectively) that can be added or subtracted from the “atomic bowl,” which Journal of Chemical Education 5/2/20 Page 10 of 19 shielding to be completely blocked. Instructors should note that the majority of alpha and beta emissions are accompanied by gamma rays, and, therefore, the shielding may not completely block the emission from some sources. However, there should still be a clear, observable decrease in counts per minute (cpm) upon shielding. The teacher will emphasize that we are exposed to low levels of 180 radioactivity every day and highlight how some sources are used in everyday objects such as smoke detectors. Lastly, instructors should discuss that radioactivity can be used for beneficial applications, like nuclear energy and medicine, and how limiting exposure time greatly reduces the risk involved in working with hazardous radioactive materials. This activity is designed to last about 20–30 minutes. The instructor can connect this activity to Isotope Rummy by pointing out that radioactive decay is the 185 process by which unstable nuclei change their proton and neutron numbers to become a stable isotope. Figure 4. Representative materials for radioactive decay activity: (1) paper shield, (2) lead shield, (3) 190 plastic shield, (4) Geiger counter, (5) uranium ore, (6) thorium lantern mantle, (7) ionization smoke detector, and (8) Fiestaware plate. Journal of Chemical Education 5/2/20 Page 11 of 19 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Isotope Rummy Student and Teacher Feedback 195 Isotope Rummy was performed in different schools located in rural, urban, and city areas. In order to assess the success of Isotope Rummy, we pooled feedback from students, teachers, and parents that participated in these activities. We generated pre- and post-student surveys to gauge if the activity was enjoyable and helpful in understanding isotopes (Figure 5). All feedback is listed in Table S4 (SI). Based on our results, most students were already familiar with the concept of isotopes; this activity, 200 however, mainly served to support or to strengthen the majority (62%) of students’ previous knowledge about isotopes. In addition, 80% of the students enjoyed this activity. Many of the students commented about how they “loved the game!” In addition, several students provided insightful suggestions, such as adding “fun pictures” to the cards. This modification would be valuable to implement for the cards that contain “fun facts” to further solidify their grasp on the applications of 205 isotopes. Even though many of the students were familiar with isotopes, Isotope Rummy provides an easy and fun way to reinforce the students’ previous understanding, helping them recall and implement this knowledge in the future. High school teachers were also surveyed during the Cornell STEM Teacher Workshop, which was held in conjunction with the NY Master Teacher Program, at Cornell University. The teachers were 210 allowed to play Isotope Rummy over the course of 30 min as if they were the students doing the activity. We then surveyed the teachers to see how easy Isotope Rummy would be to implement in their classrooms and how useful they thought it would be for engaging and helping the students understand this difficult concept (Figure 6, Table S5, SI). The majority of the teachers (73%) felt that the game would be easy to implement in their classroom, and 91% of the teachers believe that this 215 activity will help the students gain a better understanding of isotopes and their applications. In addition, the teachers thought that Isotope Rummy would be particularly effective for improving the students’ critical thinking skills. The teachers also had comments and suggestions that they could implement themselves in their classrooms or ways that we could improve the game to facilitate learning. One suggestion was to laminate the cards to make them easier to handle and to also limit the 220 Journal of Chemical Education 5/2/20 Page 12 of 19 amount of time each student has per turn, encouraging students to “think on their feet.” Overall, the teachers thought Isotope Rummy was a good model for understanding isotopes and nuclear stability. Based on the feedback from the students and teachers, we believe that Isotope Rummy provides a good model for conceptualizing isotopes and illustrating nuclear stability. We also gained insight on how to improve the game, such as adding pictures to the cards, and how to make Isotope Rummy 225 more thought-provoking for the students who already have a good understanding of isotopes. The design of Isotope Rummy as a board game provides a fun and interactive learning activity for the students and an easy to implement activity for teachers. These aspects provide a valuable tool for students to understand difficult concepts and how these concepts are applied to real-life scenarios. 230 Figure 5. Student survey questions with accompanying histograms of responses where 1 indicates strongly disagree and 5 indicates strongly agree (a–d). Overall response (blue, n = 93a, 95b), School 1 response (red, n = 55a, 57b), School 2 response (green, n = 20), and School 3 response (purple, n = 18), where n is the number of students participating in the a = pre-survey and b = post-survey. 235 Journal of Chemical Education 5/2/20 Page 15 of 19 Figure 7. Participant survey questions from EYH conference (n = 28) with accompanying histograms of 265 select responses where 1 indicates strongly disagree and 5 indicates strongly agree (a–d). CONCLUSIONS We have developed the game, Isotope Rummy, which is accessible to all schools across the country, and also the Radiative versus Radioactive Decay activity, which is currently performed as a demonstration or in a full workshop with Isotope Rummy. Isotope Rummy was found to be an effective 270 tool for helping high school students understand the basic concepts and importance of nuclear chemistry. By creating an interactive board game that is accessible to schools all around the country, students are able to engage in learning abstract concepts using tangible materials. The Radiative versus Radioactive Decay activity was also effective for increasing student understanding of nuclear chemistry. Based on the efficacy and interest in the Radiative versus Radioactive Decay 275 demonstration, we are currently pursuing efforts to develop this activity as a Lending Library kit that can be disseminated to high school classrooms across the country. We have received a large amount of Journal of Chemical Education 5/2/20 Page 16 of 19 feedback that supports both the need and efficacy of the Isotope Rummy kit and the Radiative versus Radioactive Decay demonstration. Both of these activities facilitate the learning and understanding of nuclear chemistry and foster the students’ interest in this topic. Given the ongoing need for nuclear 280 and radiochemists in the U.S. workforce, we hope that these activities can also inspire several of these students to pursue these careers. ASSOCIATED CONTENT Access to the CCMR Lending Library kits can be found through this link: http://www.ccmr.cornell.edu/education/educational-resources/lending-library-of-experiments/ 285 Supporting Information The Supporting Information is available on the ACS Publications website at DOI: The Isotope Rummy game board, cards, cheat sheet, activity sheet, status-tracking sheet, game rules, and lesson plan are included in the supplementary materials. The Radiative versus Radioactive Decay 290 demonstration’s cheat sheet and activity sheet are included in the supplementary materials. A description of how to play Isotope Rummy as well as the Geiger counter tutorial are included in the supplementary materials. ASSOCIATED CONTENT Corresponding Author 295 *E-mail: jjw275@cornell.edu ORCID Chilaluck C. Konkankit: 0000-0002-3253-0132 Justin J. Wilson: 0000-0002-4086-7982 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 300 This research was supported by the Cornell Center for Materials Research under National Science Foundation award no. NSF-DMR 1719875. Prof. Justin J. Wilson also thanks the National Science Foundation (CHE-1750295), the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs through Journal of Chemical Education 5/2/20 Page 17 of 19 the Ovarian Cancer Research Program (award no. W81XWH-17-1-0097), and the Research Corporation for Science Advancement Cottrell Scholar Award for funding that supported this 305 educational research. Prof. Hening Lin is thanked for providing the original Isotope Rummy game concept. Nevjinder Singhota is thanked for her assistance in developing the Lending Library kit. Daniel D. Moltion is thanked for his assistance in developing the europium shakers for the Radiative versus Radioactive Decay workshop activity. Veerauo V. Konkankit is thanked for her assistance in developing the Isotope Rummy game board. Melanie Anastasio, Davette Carpenter, and NY State 310 Master Teacher Program of the Southern Tier Region are thanked for their assistance in organizing the Cornell STEM Teacher Workshop. Kevin Fitch and EH&S at Cornell University are also thanked for providing the Geiger counters and radioactive sources for demonstrations and helping to develop the Radiative versus Radioactive Decay activity as a Lending Library kit. Expanding Your Horizons (EYH), Greene High School, Bloomfield Central School, and Frederick Douglass Academy VII High School are 315 all thanked for participating in this research and providing feedback on these activities.