Program - Brookhaven National Laboratory

We have developed a modular course for non-specialists, including laboratory activities, focused on the
science of materials relevant to four primary areas: (a) the nuclear fuel cycle, (b) safeguards and security, (c)
health and the environment, and (d) materials control and accounting. Our curriculum is ”scenario-based”
wherein real-world examples from each of the four focus areas (modules) drive the course content in terms of
the fundamental scientific principles necessary to understand specific challenges. The hands-on laboratory
component provides instruction in the basics of the instrumentation needed for these real-world scenarios,
as well as an opportunity for guided inquiry, critical analysis, and problem solving in relevant situations.
Our flexible course outline allows for multiple target audiences, including current GW students, incoming
freshmen, and DC-based working professionals. The latter includes non-technical individuals within the
nuclear security and safeguards arena, such as federal/state regulatory officials, national security policy
officials, industry representatives, and Congressional staff. In addition, we have instituted a rigorous plan
for assessment, not only of student learning, but also of the sustainability of the course itself. We will
present the outline of our course, as well as the details of the laboratory activities performed by the
students. The results of our initial delivery of the course in the Fall 2012 semester will be discussed,
including feedback from students and impressions from the instructors. This work was supported by NRC
grant # NRC-HQ-11-G-38-0081.
Corresponding author: Gerald Feldman
RF 3 11:40 AM
What Students Think About Nuclear Radiation - Before and After Fukushima
Susanne Neumann
University of Vienna, Austrian Educational Competence Centre Physics
Preparing successful science lessons is very demanding. One important aspect a teacher has to consider is
the students’ previous knowledge about the specific topic. This is why research about students’ preconceptions
has been, and continues to be, a major field in science education research. Following a constructivistic
approach [1], helping students learn is only possible if teachers know about students’ ideas beforehand.
Studies about students’ conceptions for the major topics in physics education (e.g. mechanics, electrodynamics,
optics, thermodynamics), are numerous and well-documented. The topic radiation, however, has
seen very little empirical research about students’ ideas and misconceptions. Some research was conducted
after the events of Chernobyl (e.g. [2], [3]) and provided interesting insight into some of the students’
preconceptions about radiation. In order to contribute empirical findings to this field of research, our
workgroup has been investigating the conceptions students have about the topic radiation for several years
(cf. [4]). We used children’s drawings and conducted short follow-up interviews with younger students
(from 9 to 12 years old) and more detailed interviews with 15-year-old students. In my talk, I would like
to present our findings from the analysis of two sessions with 43 interviews each which we administered
before and after Fukushima, respectively. Besides asking students about their general associations and
emotions regarding the term radiation, we examined the students’ risk perceptions of different types of
radiation. Also, in open-ended questions we were able to detect students’ conceptions about nuclear as
well as other types of radiation that could be a hindrance to students’ learning. Our results show that
the students’ associations with the term radiation are predominantly related to nuclear radiation. Their
emotions concerning the word radiation are, to a high degree, negative and the idea that radiation, in
general, is something harmful and bad is widely spread among students. Also, it seems to be very difficult
for many students to combine the factual knowledge they learned in school (e.g. the three types of nuclear
radiation and their properties) to the details they read in news reports about Fukushima. Since most students
were not familiar with the idea of naturally occurring nuclear radiation, it does not seem surprising
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