The Physics Teaching Podcast

Tag: ionising radiation

  • Don’t be scared of Ionising Radiation

    Don’t be scared of Ionising Radiation

    When it comes to emotive topics in physics teaching, radioactivity is up there. We have experienced colleagues who would refuse to work with school radioactive sources, even though there you generally encounter more risk while boiling a kettle. But you need to register, store and handle them properly or you could land your school with a fine.

    Thomas and Robin talk radiation and encourage you to get over the administrative hurdle, talk to your RPS and get trained in the use of sources so you can teach radioactivity with sources. If your school doesn’t have an RPS and you don’t know where to start, make sure you have a CLEAPSS membership and give them a call (see links for how to contact CLEAPSS).

    Surprisingly, the greatest risk is financial as falling foul of the regulations can result in a LARGE fine, so do make sure you satisfy all the requirements. You will need a Radiation Protection Officer (different to the RPS mentioned above, and generally more ‘expert’ on the regs). Between the RPO and CLEAPSS you should get enough advice to become compliant (or rarely to conclude that radioactive sources are not an option in your school).

    So whilst you shouldn’t be gung-ho, this is more to ensure you don’t risk a fine; the sources themselves are not inherently dangerous if handled carefully.

    Links

    CLEAPSS – why join?

    PDF L93 Ionising Radiations and Radioactive Substances – CLEAPSS

    XKCD – comparing radioactive doses

    Join in!

    Please share ideas or successes – or indeed questions by messaging us on BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/physicstp.bsky.social .  You can also message us via our website contact form on every page of the web site at  the.physicsteachingpodcast.com, or email using the address given in the podcast (if we remember). We are moving away from X but can be found there as @physicstp.

    Music

    The music is used under the Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 International License

  • Ways to teach… Ionising radiation

    Ways to teach… Ionising radiation

    Listeners have been more than generous with some tips for ionising radiation and how to teach it. Thomas, Robin and Patrick introduce some great ideas and discuss how to put IR in context.

    Wisdom and wit

    Patrick, Thomas and Robin get together to tackle ways to teach Ionising Radiation with context proving to be the most common tip.

    Friend of the podcast, Dan Toomey shares his love of the radioactive sources and how to build a radiation detector, while Sarah Nunn and Mary Wild both weigh in with some tips on the best ways to run class demos and to help students remember the relative properties of alpha, beta and gamma. Everyone loves a story!

    Patrick, it turns out used to have his own nuclear reactor that the US government gave him (none of this is quite true, but in Thomas’ and Robin’s heads it always will be!) and he tells us some of the real-life ways in which he avoided being toasted – we’re so glad he did.

    Horror stories appeal to the kids too, so Thomas shared this genuinely terrifying clip of Russian ‘safety’ measures, whilst Veritasium gets a mention for the fantastic video on the world’s most radioactive places.

    XKCD.com/radiation is another great resource for getting kids thinking about how common and everyday radiation really is. The circumstances surrounding the Goiânia accident are as bizarre as they are terrifying.

    For careers advice, tell your students about Medical physics careers and many more. Just one of the jobs you can do if you study ionising radaition.

    Thanks to Dan, Mary, Sarah, Patrick and to you for listening!

    HAVE A GREAT HALF TERM!!

    Join in!

    Please share ideas or successes – or indeed questions by messaging us on BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/physicstp.bsky.social .  You can also message us via our website contact form on every page of the web site at  the.physicsteachingpodcast.com, or email using the address given in the podcast (if we remember). We are moving away from X but can be found there as @physicstp.

    Music

    The music is used under the Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 International License