rad education -Reply

["Lou Varricchio" <VARRICCH@INET.champlain.edu>]

Cathy: Some very creative ideas!  (I believe I had asked the
initial question about "teaching" the fundamentals of
radioactivity.)  I do think it's important for students to
explore the real McCoy, i.e. opening up a smoke detector and
showing them that, carefully handled and disposed of when it
decays, something from inside an atomic reactor--in this case the
element Americium--is used to help save lives not kill them.  I'd
even arrange to have an x-ray demo at a hospital or college and
take a trip to a nuclear power plant.  This helps students know
that nuclear materials are important to their quality of life and
used in many everyday things; they're not going to make you glow
or explode.  Thanks for your wonderful teaching ideas.