Training Future Engineers to Be Ghostbusters: Hunting for the Spectral Environmental Radioactivity

Autor/inn/en	Albéri, Matteo; Baldoncini, Marica; Bottardi, Carlo; Chiarelli, Enrico; Landsberger, Sheldon; Raptis, Kassandra Giulia Cristina; Serafini, Andrea; Strati, Virginia; Mantovani, Fabio
Titel	Training Future Engineers to Be Ghostbusters: Hunting for the Spectral Environmental Radioactivity
Quelle	In: Education Sciences, 9 (2019), Artikel 15 (14 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext kostenfreie Datei Verfügbarkeit
Zusatzinformation	ORCID (Albéri, Matteo) ORCID (Baldoncini, Marica) ORCID (Bottardi, Carlo) ORCID (Chiarelli, Enrico) ORCID (Strati, Virginia) ORCID (Mantovani, Fabio)
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	2227-7102
Schlagwörter	Engineering Education; Radiation; Learning Activities; Interdisciplinary Approach; Computer Uses in Education; Nuclear Physics; Geographic Information Systems; Spectroscopy; Instructional Effectiveness; Hands on Science; High School Students; Science Experiments; Maps; Foreign Countries; Science Instruction; Secondary School Science; Italy + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Ingenieurausbildung; Strahlung; Lernaktivität; Fächerübergreifender Unterricht; Fächerverbindender Unterricht; Interdisziplinarität; Computernutzung; Atomphysik; Kernphysik; Spektroskopie; Unterrichtserfolg; High school; High schools; Student; Students; Oberschule; Schüler; Schülerin; Studentin; Map; Karte; Ausland; Teaching of science; Science education; Natural sciences Lessons; Naturwissenschaftlicher Unterricht; Italien
Abstract	Although environmental radioactivity is all around us, the collective public imagination often associates a negative feeling to this natural phenomenon. To increase the familiarity with this phenomenon we have designed, implemented, and tested an interdisciplinary educational activity for pre-collegiate students in which nuclear engineering and computer science are ancillary to the comprehension of basic physics concepts. Teaching and training experiences are performed by using a 4" × 4" NaI(Tl) detector for in-situ and laboratory ?-ray spectroscopy measurements. Students are asked to directly assemble the experimental setup and to manage the data-taking with a dedicated Android app, which exploits a client-server system that is based on the Bluetooth communication protocol. The acquired ?-ray spectra and the experimental results are analyzed using a multiple-platform software environment and they are finally shared on an open access Web-GIS service. These all-round activities combining theoretical background, hands-on setup operations, data analysis, and critical synthesis of the results were demonstrated to be effective in increasing students' awareness in quantitatively investigating environmental radioactivity. Supporting information to the basic physics concepts provided in this article can be found at http://www.fe.infn.it/radioactivity/educational. (As Provided).
Anmerkungen	MDPI AG. Klybeckstrasse 64, 4057 Basel, Switzerland. Tel: e-mail: indexing@mdpi.com; Web site: http://www.mdpi.com
Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2020/1/01