Does a radioactive cat have 18 half-lives? An understanding of half-life is important in both chemistry and biology, so start your young scientists off the right way — with the good foundation provided by a video that begins with a graph that demonstrates the pattern of half-life and then works through several word problems using the pattern. 

Concepts

half lives, radioactive decay, carbon dating

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Additional Tags

science

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Instructional Ideas

• Show the introduction that explains the half-life pattern; pause the video after each word problem to give your classes an opportunity to complete them and ask questions
• Assign the word problems in the video as homework so learners can use the video as a resource

Classroom Considerations

• Requires Internet access to view the video

Pros

• Each word problem has a different unknown, which keeps learners thinking about the relationships rather than following a set of steps
• Instructor explains each problem thoroughly in a manner accessible to learners

Cons

• The instructor completes all problems without writing an equation, limiting the rigor of the problems