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Education & Communications

Education and Communication Committee

Information for High School Science Teachers and Students

 

CNS Ionising Radiation Workshop

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The CNS ECC developed the Ionizing Radiation workshop, entitled Be Aware of NORM (NORM = Naturally Occurring Radioactive Material) for high school senior science teachers.  The Workshop includes aids for teachers on radioactive decay and fission.  It introduces:

This workshop has been presented (or almost presented):

  1. November 14, 2008 at the Science Teachers’ Association of Ontario (STAO) Annual Conference in Toronto ON, and concurrently at
  2. the Alberta Teachers’ Association Science Council Conference in Calgary AB;
  3. February 13, 2009 at the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board Science Professional Development day;
  4. May 22 & 23, 2009 at the Atlantic Canada Association of Science Educators (ACASE) / Association des Enseignantes and des Enseignants de Sciences de l'Atlantique (AEESA) Annual Conference in Moncton NB
  5. November 21, 2009 at the Alberta Teachers’ Association Science Council Annual Conference in Red Deer AB;
  6. December 3, 2009 at Northern Secondary School in Toronto to a small group of Toronto District School Board teachers who requested CNS Geiger Kits;
  7. December 4, 2009 at the York Region District School Board Science Seminar held at Newmarket High School.
  8. March 1, 2010 at the Rocky View School District Teachers Professional Development Day held at Burt Church High School, Airdrie AB.
  9. May 1, 2010 at the Ontario Association of Physics Teachers Annual Conference held at the University of Toronto.
  10. July 9, 2010 at the Atlantic Canada Association of Science Educators (ACASE) / Association des Enseignantes and des Enseignants de Sciences de l'Atlantique (AEESA) Annual Conference in Charlottetown, PEI. -- CANCELLED!
  11.  November 12, 2010 at the Science Teachers’ Association of Ontario (STAO) Annual Conference in Toronto, ON.
  12. February 18, 2011 at the Toronto District School Board Secondary Science Teacher's Conference.
  13. April 8, 2011 at the Renfrew Country District School Board Science Seminar.
  14. October 20-21, 2011, Alberta Teachers' Association Science Council Conference, Lake Louise, AB.
  15. October 28, 2011:  Association of Science Teachers (Nova Scotia), Halifax, NS.
  16. November 10, 2011:  Science Teachers’ Association of Ontario (STAO) Annual Conference in Toronto, ON.
  17.  December 2, 2011 at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, Toronto, ON.
  18.  February 17, 2012 10:30-11:30 at the Toronto District School Board Secondary Science Teacher's Conference at Marc Garneau SS.
  19.  February 17, 2012 2:00-3:00 at the Durham Region School Board Everything Science Conference at Maxwell Heights SS in Oshawa, ON.
  20.  November 15-17, 2012 at the Alberta Teachers' Association Science Council Conference, Banff, AB.
  21. February 15, 2013 at the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board Science Professional Development Day at Brookfield High School, Ottawa, AB.
  22. Coming up: October 25, 2013:  Association of Science Teachers (Nova Scotia), Halifax, NS.
  23. Pending: November 14-16, 2013, Science Teachers’ Association of Ontario (STAO) Annual Conference in Toronto, ON.
  24. Pending: November 14-16, 2013 at the Alberta Teachers' Association Science Council Conference, Edmonton, AB.

The most recent workshop notes and presentation files are available for download (right click and save as).  The recommended links for internet resources listed in the notes are available as a separate file that is revised more frequently.

Workshop notes (PDF)  (revision 11, 2013-02-01) Includes the balloon experiment!

If you have an earlier workshop file, download the Balloon Addendum (PDF)

Power Point Presentation (18 MB)  (revised 2013-02-02)  now with the balloon!

Short form Power Point Presentation (5.3 MB) for OCDSB (2013-02-02) balloon!

Note: Power Point files may be set up for projection on a second display.

Recommended Links for Educators and Students (PDF) (revised 2013-02-01)

In creating this workshop, the CNS ECC collaborated with a retired teacher in Ontario and a working teacher in Alberta.  Renfrew County District School Board science teachers helped evaluate the CNS ECC approach.  Feedback from workshop presenters and attendees have resulted in many changes to this workshop. The full scope of this workshop requires 90 minutes.  Many presentation opportunities are constrained to less than 60 minutes.  The content has been reduced in the shortened version to provide sufficient time for the teachers to gain hands-on experience with the Geiger system.

If you wish to have the workshop presented at your Science Teachers' Conference or similar event, please  contact the CNS!

An article on NORM (reproduced with permission), by B. White of the CNS ECC, was published in STAO's "Crucible" prior to the 2008 Workshop presentation. Another article on the Hot Balloon Experiment (reproduced with permission), was published prior to the 2011 Workshop presentation at STAO.

The Jefferson Laboratory has a series of videos on the measurement of the half-life of barium-137 as the Frostbite Theater: Part 1, Part 2, Part 2e, Part 3. Students may collect and analyse the data from the videos.

iLabCentral has a series of online labs. The Radioactivity Lab includes an intense source with a moveable Geiger detector to investigate the effect of distance (1/r2?)

The CNS workshop references the brochures below.

CNS Educational Brochures
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The following CNS educational brochures are available for download:

Please check back here for the most recent version of these files and new ones.

Comments or suggestions are most welcome!

Geiger Kit Donations

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Schools with Kits

The CNS has donated Geiger kits to 141 Canadian high schools from Halifax NS to Grande Cache AB as shown in the map above (2 of these are considered to be lost).   

If you are a science teacher at a Canadian high school and wish to obtain a Geiger Kit for your school, please contact the CNS.  Your request will be added to our list, and it will be addressed when resources are available (104 are on the list).  In the interim, if your school is near one of those in the list of schools with Geiger kits, you may be able to borrow one from a colleague.  The highlighted schools are the most recent recipients.  The Geiger interfaces with a personal computer running most versions of Windows® .

Note:  if you have updated to Windows 7®, please contact the CNS for a compatible interface.  If your interface provided by the CNS does not look like either of the ones shown in the photos below, it is not compatible!

 Earlier USB-MSP interface

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The CNS Geiger Kit in 2012 includes an Aware Electronics RM-80 Geiger detector with a protective cover, cables and a USB-MSP microcontroller interface, software and support material on a CD, a container of NoSalt®, a sample of clumping cat litter, and plastic containers useful for monitoring the activity of samples -- and starting in 2012, the Hot Balloon kit supplement.  If you have a CNS Geiger Kit and wish to receive the Hot Balloon kit supplement, please contact the CNS.

New in 2012: Aware Electronics have provided the CNS with a custom version of their Aw-Radw software. This includes an install program compatible with the Windows® Installation Wizard. The install program is available for use with serial port interfaces (classical serial port or a USB-serial port adapter (using the Prolific chip set) where the drivers are handled separately. The install program for use with Aware Electronics USB-MSP interfaces (using the FTDI chip set) includes the option of installing the drivers. Either version will place a shortcut on the desktop as an option. This launches the program with the CNS-preferred parameters and the data logging to file is not started. The CNS provides an installation guide (2012-09 Rev. 1) with the software. If you have an existing CNS Geiger Kit and wish to try the new software, please contact the CNS and we'll send you an update.

A Guide for Getting Started with your CNS Geiger Kit is available. 

What do science teachers say about using the Geiger Kit in their classroom (only the positive comments ...)?

"The RM-80 Geiger and the computer software have proven to be an invaluable tool in my classroom.  The last unit of the Physics 30 program includes a section on nuclear radioactivity, including:

1.  identifying and distinguishing the 3 types of nuclear reactions
2.  determining half-lives and analyzing decay curves
3.  describing the uses and effects of various radioactive substances, etc.
 
As I taught this section, the RM-80 Geiger and the use of the computer software enabled the students to observe the decay of various substances, including many that are household items, and to easily obtain data that could be used to identify the types of decay and to plot a reliable decay curve to determine the half-life of the sample.
 
This procedure could not be possible in the classroom before.  Previously, all that could be done in the classroom was a demonstration of decay of a purchased sample of radioactive substance with a relatively inexpensive radiation detector.  Most schools do not have the budget to purchase a detector such as the RM-80 and the computer software."

"_ High School received a Geiger Counter last spring.  It is used for demonstrations in both 6 and 9 science.  This would be approximately 3 uses per school year.  The Geiger counter is working well.  It is nice that it is hooked to our laptops so that the graph produced can be projected for all students to see."

"I greatly appreciate the opportunity to use it in my classes. It is a terrific tool in helping me get my students interested in the sciences. Few of my students know much about radiation and nuclear energy so the Geiger kit really opens a door for them to many things they have never explored before."

"Put my Geiger to work in a class today. Turned it on and let it run with volume up loud until someone asked what that ticking noise was. When I explained that it was background radiation being detected, they asked "Is that safe?". Needless to say, lots of good discussion ensued. Thank you for the Geiger and the program and the booklet. Am putting it to use in my Grade 11 physics class this week."

"My class was quite thrilled yesterday to test various substances and see the plots develop on-screen."

We'd be pleased to hear about your experiences with your CNS Geiger Kit - the good, the bad and the ugly. A few lines in an email would be most appreciated: contact the CNS!

Note:  anti-virus / malware software may quarantine the Aware program.  You must give it an exception to enable it to run.  The  new version of the Aware program is available if this presents a problem for you --  contact the CNS!

Nuclear-Science Experiments in the Classroom
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During the Annual Science for Educators Seminars formerly held at AECL's Chalk River Laboratories, science teachers were introduced to some of the material that is included in the Ionising Radiation Workshop.  Other activities included the use miniature cloud chambers, and the use of the Geiger detector to estimate the half-life of Ba-137m produced in a commercially available radioisotope generator.

To address the material needs for classroom use in addition to the Geiger Kit Donation program above, the CNS ECC can assist schools in the acquisition of: cloud chambers; flashlights; uranium-containing rock samples and other radiation sources; a Ba-137 radioisotope generator; smoke detectors.

Teachers will be expected to provide dry ice and alcohol for cloud chambers and an IBM-compatible computer for data acquisition from the Geiger detector. 
Note:  the Ba-137m generator contains 370 kBq of Cs-137 in excess of the 10 kBq exemption quantity specified by the Canadian Nuclear Saftey Commission.  Owners of this source in Canada are required to hold a licence issued by the CNSC.

Download the 1998 handbook Nuclear Experiments in the Classroom (PDF) which describes each experiment in detail.   The handbook also provides contacts for obtaining the necessary equipment, as well as persons who can provide more information.

Download the PDF version of the shorter booklet: RADIATION ENCOUNTER!, used as supplementary material at a hands-on cloud-chamber demonstration held at the Ontario Science Centre (Toronto, Ont.) on 2002 January 26th.