We explored the potential for addressing nature of science through a historic narrative about disagreement between researchers concerning a socio-scientific issue, incidence of juvenile thyroid cancer following the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident. The narrative was developed from authentic sources and tested in two cycles. Eight groups of three…

Recent research emphasizes the need for a more sustained interaction of schools with universities and research institutions. For example, informal after-school programs integrated into the school curriculum can provide opportunities for meaningful interaction with researchers in active learning settings. At the physics department of University of…

Nuclear chemistry and radiochemistry is a branch of chemistry that has high experimental risks, has high research costs, and is subject to certain prejudices. However, it has an extremely important influence on the development of human life. It is particularly important to emphasize the general education of nuclear chemistry and radiochemistry…

This article aims to introduce the actinides and some aspects of nuclear chemistry to teachers and their students. The actinides are a group of f-block elements with atomic numbers from 90 to 103. (The term 'actinoids' encompasses both the actinides and actinium itself). All of the actinides are radioactive but they also have a rich inorganic…

Objective: We investigated how individuals deal with the limits of their own knowledge and productively cope with their dependence on experts as they engage with the socio-scientific topic of nuclear energy. We scrutinized the effects of content features of an interview text and of individuals' communicative engagement with the information read.…

For several years, I taught a general education course on the Manhattan Project for students majoring in the arts and humanities who needed a physical science credit as a condition of their graduation requirements. As might be imagined, the challenge in teaching this course was to find a balance between quantitative and qualitative content. A…

In this paper it is demonstrated how the free, and easily downloadable, software package called SMath Studio can be used to set up a model of alpha-particle scattering. The basic physics of the motion of an alpha-particle in the nuclear coulomb field is used to produce a simple stepwise computer algorithm which, in conjunction with a novel set of…

The purpose of this study is to discuss notions of femininity and masculinity in situations of argumentation among Swedish upper-secondary students who are studying Natural Science. The empirical material is drawn from an ethnographic inspired study, where I followed a group of students in all of their science teaching throughout a semester. This…

This article considers best practices for writing articles in science, technology, and policy, focusing on writing for international scholarly journals in nuclear security. Its two main audiences are technical communication educators/researchers and internationals wishing to publish their work in English-medium scholarly journals. I discuss…

The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of energy resources activities on attitudes and views of prospective classroom teachers about renewable energy resources within the context of out-of school learning environments. In the study, quasi-experimental design without pre-test post-test control group was used. The research was conducted…

Renewable and nuclear energy are two plausible alternatives to fossil fuel-based energy production. This study reports students' beliefs about the usefulness of these two options in reducing global warming and their willingness to undertake actions that would encourage their uptake. Using a specially designed questionnaire, students'…

Clean energy is a topic of increasing political and cultural significance in the age of climate change, and as such can be an interesting topic with which to engage students. One avenue to produce large quantities of power is through harnessing nuclear reactions; however, the social stigma and fear of expanding nuclear power have placed several…

There currently exists a significant deficiency in the nuclear chemistry workforce within the United States, despite its importance in areas of medicine, national security, and energy. Poor coverage of this topic across many chemistry departments at the undergraduate level likely contributes to this shortage. Increasing interest and hands-on…

The logos of many atomic energy regulatory bodies present a paradox in that the depictions of atomic structure that they portray tend to be 'wrong' in relation to the rules that govern pictorial representations of atomic structure that we teach. These logos present chemistry educators with excellent classroom resources to enhance critical thinking…

This case study analyses an application of distance training in the practice of nuclear knowledge preservation. The purpose of the research is to evaluate the potential of distance training in solving the problem of knowledge preservation in the nuclear industry. Thirty specialists from different European countries participated in the pilot…