High school students become “decay detectives”ANS NewsEducationMarch 9, 2020, 2:37PM|ANS News StaffLesson plans for middle school and high school students make up only one part of the compelling nuclear science education resources that Navigating Nuclear offers for today’s classrooms. ANS’s K–12 curriculum reaches students with virtual field trips (see article that begins on page 1), career resources, and STEM project starters to get students excited about nuclear science and its applications.Provided as a capstone to Navigating Nuclear lesson plans, STEM project starters let students put science, technology, engineering, and math concepts into action. Each project starter contains a guiding question, teacher note, student-facing prompt, and station for students to show their work and share their findings.A new STEM project starter, called “Decay Detectives: Art Forgery or Masterpiece?” has been created as part of Navigating Nuclear’s high school materials. Using “Decay Detectives,” students can investigate and calculate radioactive decay, half-life, and radiocarbon dating; research the process of using microscale radiocarbon dating to determine the age of paintings through accelerator mass spectrometry; and use mock data to make decisions about potential “forgeries.” Students conduct forensic analysis to decide whether a series of paintings are likely genuine, likely forgeries, or definite forgeries by analyzing mock radiocarbon data from canvas and paint layers to see if the readings match what would be expected based on the date of the painting. Students can extend their learning by completing a radiometric dating lab in which they simulate the radioactive decay of elements and some of the principles of radiometric dating.Navigating Nuclear’s middle school resources include three other STEM project starters: “From Atoms to Electricity,” “Fusion and Fission: Think Nucleus,” and “Radiopharmaceuticals.”All Navigating Nuclear materials are free and open to the public, giving teachers, parents, and others the resources they need to engage young people and get them interested in nuclear science from a young age.Tags:k-12 educationnavigating nuclearonline resourcesoutreachShare:LinkedInTwitterFacebook
The value of “fluffy” stuffMary Lou Dunzik-GougarYou know the old saying that those who can, do, and those who can’t, teach? Well, I say anyone thinking that way should be kept far away from students!In my time at Argonne National Laboratory and Idaho National Laboratory, I worked with incredible scientists and engineers doing cutting-edge research. Unfortunately, making progress in research is not always conducive to the education and training of those who haven’t yet gained the necessary expertise. And there is an interesting phenomenon that occurs the more one gains in education and experience: We tend to forget what we were like before, what it was like not to know everything we do now. More than one of my PhD colleagues at the national labs dismissed the education and outreach efforts that I pursued in my spare time: scouts, K-12 classroom visits, teacher workshops, science expos, etc., viewing any focus other than the truly technical as just “fluffy” and a waste of valuable time and effort.Go to Article
Giving Tuesday: Bringing nuclear to every classroomGiving Tuesday is a nationwide day of giving back to the not-for-profit community. For Giving Tuesday, the American Nuclear Society is on a mission–jumpstart funding for a special initiative, Nuclear in Every Classroom. This landmark effort helps ensure nuclear science and technology crosses the desks – virtual or in-person – of every k-12 student and teacher in the nation. The initiative builds upon the success of Navigating Nuclear: Energizing Our World, the ANS partnership with Discovery Education that has reached over 1.3 million students.Go to Article
Elementary school resources added to Navigating NuclearElementary school lesson plans are the latest additions to the Navigating Nuclear: Energizing Our World website. The two lesson plans were created to help students in grades 3-5 understand the power of the atom and how to investigate different energy sources.Navigating Nuclear is a K-12 nuclear science and energy curriculum created in partnership by the American Nuclear Society and Discovery Education, with lead funding from the Department of Energy's Office of Nuclear Energy.Go to Article
Nuclear in K-12 education: Overview of ANS toolkit and reflections from educatorsA free webinar today from 3:00 p.m.-4:30 p.m. (EDT) will look at the resources that the American Nuclear Society has developed with Discovery Education and the Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy to help K-12 educators teach nuclear science and technology.The webinar will begin with an overview of the resources, followed by reflections and commentary from three educators of various grade levels on their experiences teaching nuclear science and their thoughts about ANS’s instructional materials. The webinar will conclude with a Q&A session with the panelists.Registration is required for this Nuclear Science Week event.Go to Article
ANS celebrates Nuclear Science Week with social media campaign, new RIPB webpageThe nuclear industry has embraced the risk-informed and performance-based (RIPB) decision-making process over the past two decades. Still, it remains a complex concept to explain in lay terms.With that in mind, the American Nuclear Society will be kicking off an RIPB awareness social media campaign as part of Nuclear Science Week 2020, which begins today and runs through Friday. The campaign will link decision making to everyday events in a person's life and feature a series of images and seemingly easy questions requiring a choice to be made. For example, ANS asks, “Would you get rid of your car if the radio didn’t work?” or “Would you toss a lamp if the shade was dirty?”Go to Article
ARPA-E Energy Briefs highlight innovations and programsThe Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) is at work developing and demonstrating novel energy technologies and connecting those technologies with private-sector investors. The researchers and innovators behind ARPA-E want to tell you all about it in a series of “Energy Briefs” available through the agency’s YouTube channel.Go to Article
YMG’s new Rad Talks series gets under wayThe ANS Young Members Group is launching a new series of virtual events called Rad Talks. Inspired by the concept of salon dinners, each Rad Talks session will spotlight an influential nuclear industry leader in an interactive discussion with a limited number of participants. The sessions are open to young and student members.Go to Article
Spotlighting teamwork and new ideas at LLNLThe sixth and most recent installment in the ANS Young Members Group (YMG) Spotlight on National Labs webinar series explored nuclear science and engineering at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory on July 16.Go to Article
Recapping the ANS/NEI Advanced Reactor Codes and Standards WorkshopAs industry steps up its efforts to design, develop, and deploy advanced reactors, codes and standards must be developed to support these technologies. Toward that end, ANS and the Nuclear Energy Institute collaborated to host a virtual workshop on June 23 for industry partners to discuss the development of advanced reactor codes and standards.NEI’s senior director of new reactors, Marc Nichol, welcomed more than 400 attendees to the online meeting, and ANS’s director of government relations, John Starkey, outlined the meeting logistics.Go to Article
ANS offers diversity, equity, and inclusion resources for all community membersThe Diversity and Inclusion in ANS program is guided by the Diversity and Inclusion in ANS (DIA) Committee to promote diversity and inclusion in nuclear science, technology, and engineering and to promote and support the participation of underrepresented or marginalized groups within the Society, including—but not limited to—women, persons of color, members of the LGBTQ+ community, and persons with disabilities.Go to Article