Lesson Plan
National Museum of Nuclear Science & History

Nuclear Popcorn

For Teachers 7th - 12th
Make your lesson on radioactive decay pop with this lab exercise. Using popcorn kernels spread over a tabletop, participants pick up all of those that point toward the back of the room, that is, those that represent decayed atoms. As the...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Rhinos and M&M's

For Teachers 9th - 12th
High schoolers analyze patterns of exponential models by collecting data in paper folding and M&M investigations. They use graphing calculators to create scatter plots that lead to equations for the exponential models. They then...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Introduction to Graphical Representation of Data Sets in Connection with Nuclear Decay

For Teachers 7th - 8th
Students record data, make observations, and share in experimentation and discussion of numerical experiments.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Get a Half-life!

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Pupils explore decay functions and the half-life of a substance. Through an M&M activity with calculators, students collect and graph data. They determine the linear, quadratic and exponential functions of the graph. Pupils...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Introduction to Graphical Representation of Data Sets in Connection to Cellular Growth

For Teachers 7th - 8th
Students practice graphing relationships between variables by studying topics such as exponential growth and decay. They conduct a series of numerical experiments using a computer model and a variety of physical experiments using mold,...