Additional Resources
Teacher Notes
Teacher Notes
Nova Dirty Bomb
Website
Teachers' Domain
Resource
Goals for Everyday Radiation materials: Students should be
CBS News report able to answer the following questions: Does radiation occur naturally? If so, how much? What causes it? What levels of radiation are considered unsafe?
Ask students if they think ionizing radiation occurs naturally and hold a class discussion on their thoughts on this and how much ionizing radiation they think is considered safe. After the class discussion, introduce a video that discusses naturally occurring ionizing radiation and let students know that the video will address the discussion questions. Consider the videos suggested below.
NOVA: Dirty Bomb
Health affects and background radiation (28:50-29:40)
Description: When calculating the risk of radiation scientists take into account background radiation from the surroundings. Radiation is all around us. This clip shows scientist measuring background radiation and includes an introduction to potassium-40, the second most abundant radioactive isotope on Earth. Radiation and radioactivity occur naturally around us, but how much is safe? Most scientists agree that levels of 80 times higher than normal could overwhelm our natural defenses, and increase the risk of cancer to one in ten people.
Radiation uses (41:52-42:54)
Description: We are surrounded by sources of radiation and we need them. We rely on X-rays for medical and security purposes. We utilize gamma radiation to kill anthrax and other biological hazards, and to sterilize products like band-aids and food. The US has over two million sources of radioactive isotopes, but only a small fraction of this number, a couple hundred thousand, would pose high security risk.
Teachers Domain: Digital Media for the Classroom and Professional Development useful as alternatives. The “Radiation: To Worry or Not to Worry” resources
( http://www.teachersdomain.org/resource/phy03.sci.phys.energy.lp_worry/ ) include video clips that provide a real life example of how a nuclear energy worker was exposed to radiation in his every day life, not at work, and the investigations conducted to identify the source of the radioactivity. In addition to the video clip, there are several suggested discussion questions on the site. You could also conduct an internet search using the key words, “teacher domain, video, naturally occurring ionizing radiation.” Note: no registration is required to view the videos.
Other components of this Teachers Domain resource will be introduced in other sections of this manual.
If student groups have access to computers you could assign them to watch a CBS news video from 2008 in which they discuss the mapping of background radiation over DC. It is difficult to hear the discussion in this video so it may be better to view it in small groups rather than as a class. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dB-zkcuvCd4 .