Union 3, Lesson 3

Lesson 3 - Isotopes and Radioactivity

Student Performance Objectives
1. Define nuclear decay, nuclear stability and half-life.
2. Draw the Bohr models for hydrogen, deuterium and tritium.
3. Define biological half-life and background radiation.
4. Explain the difference in ionizing radiation exposure when a simple x-ray, an angiogram or 
    magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is used in a medical imaging procedure.

Lesson Outline
Lesson Outline
A. Concept of ionizing radiation, sources and atomic nuclear stability. 
    1. Nuclear decay 
        http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radioactive_decay 
     2. Medical applications. See
         http://www.who.int/ionizing_radiation/en/  or
        http://www.who.int/ionizing_radiation/about/what_is_ir/en/
B. Diagram hydrogen, deuterium and tritium. 
      C. Radioisotopes and half-life.
    1. Physical half-life - time for 50% of atoms to decay to more stable 
        forms. 
    2. Biological half-life - time for half to disappear from the human body 
        generally through excretion.
D. Practical considerations
    1. Background radiation from the sun and outer space.
    2. Medical sources from dental and chest X-rays, CT scans.
    3. Compare ionizing radiation to MRI's, sonograms, and thermograms.
    4. Consider angiograms - one such motion picture X-ray procedure exposes one to the 
        equivalent of thousands of chest X-rays.