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RE: High School Health Physics - anecdote
I have used the half-life example to good effect also. This example has worked with a Scouting group and Middle School Career Days. After you get through the concept of half-life, pick a short arbitrary half life. Three minutes has worked well with me. Tell the class to imagine that the room is full of radioactive material. For the first couple of half life times try to hit it exactly so you can say things like, "Okay, after one half life life, 3 minutes, half of the material has decayed. That means that there is only enough radioactve material left to fill the front half of the room. (geturing to illustrate.) " or "Okay, now two half lifes have gone by, after 6 minutes there is only enough radioavtive material to fill this quarter of he room." After two examples ask them how much is left. If they get it right, you can skip the next two or three safely and summarize the volume reduction at five, seven, and ten. In an average size classroom, after ten half lives you will be left with a trash can sized volume to have them compare to the room itself. It gets the point across very well.
The scout masters told me they hadn't seen the kids that absorbed by a talk in over a year, and they had to cut the questions off because parents were lining up to collect the kids.
Zack Clayton
zclayton@epa.state.oh.us
Ohio EPA
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