Nuclear energy produces low carbon, safe and reliable electricity so is it now time for the UK to invest in this proven technology or are the misplaced perceptions regarding its safety, cost and the quantities of radioactive waste produced causing us to overlook nuclear as a major component of our electricity mix? This paper discusses these issues…

Nuclear energy seems to be a promising alternative to meet Turkey's growing energy needs, and governments have been working on it for years. However, public acceptance of nuclear power is an important factor for governments to consider. This study aims to explore public acceptance of nuclear power in Turkey and its relationship with environmental…

In recent years, nuclear security has gained prominence on the international security agenda. Driven by post 9/11 anxieties and the politicization of fears regarding nuclear terrorism, concerns in this area have spawned a wealth of initiatives, which seek to counter this threat. Principal among these have been efforts to promote nuclear security…

This study aimed to determine science teachers' decisions about the socio-scientific issue of nuclear-power plant and how these decisions are given within the framework of the decision making process. The design of this research is based on a case study. 22 teachers who worked in the middle schools in the city center of the province of Sinop were…

Although infinite potential 'particle in a box' models are widely used to introduce quantised energy levels their predictions cannot be quantitatively compared with atomic emission spectra. Here, this problem is overcome by describing how both infinite and finite potential well models can be used to calculate the confined energy levels of…

Near the end of World War II, the United States dropped the first nuclear bomb ever used in warfare. The bomb was code named "Little Boy." The fission-type nuclear bomb exploded with the energy equivalent of approximately 13 kilotons of TNT. This article describes a 16 day model-based inquiry (MBI) unit on nuclear chemistry that…

Clair J. Sullivan is an assistant professor in the Department of Nuclear, Plasma and Radiological Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). Her research interests include radiation detection and measurements; gamma-ray spectroscopy; automated isotope identification algorithms; nuclear forensics; nuclear security;…

Multi-authoring has been gaining popularity since the foundation of academic publishers. Today we observe a global trend in favor of multi-authoring. On the other hand, in certain domains, such as CERN collaborations in physics, multi-authoring has a different connotation than other domains. The number of co-authors may be above 5000, an all-time…

Matter can be described and explained in a number of ways, using models of increasing complexity depending on the intended audience. Under the current National Curriculum for England, the kinetic theory of matter is taught to 11- and 12-year-olds in secondary schools to explain the structure of solids, liquids and gases and their behaviour when…

We engaged 47 eighth-grade students in a newly developed learning environment that integrates mobile augmented reality (AR) technology to support students' learning of nuclear energy use and radiation pollution, a topic related to a socioscientific issue (SSI) that involves complex reasoning considering scientific evidence and multiple…

There is not a common attitude in a society for socio-scientific issues (SSI) such as whether to use nuclear power plants for energy production. Within this respect, the aim of the research is to examine pre-service science teachers' and pre-service social studies teachers' attitudes toward SSI and to reveal their views about setting up nuclear…

The purpose of this study is to determine the metaphors that the candidate teachers develop about the nuclear power plants in a socio-scientific issues-based environmental education class and the justification of these metaphors. The study was constructed on the basis of a qualitative research model and phenomenological (phenomenology) pattern was…

The teaching of socioscientific issues (SSI) holds promise for advancing functional scientific literacy, promoting critical thinking, and providing an interesting context for learning required science content, but few teachers actually employ this teaching method in K-12 classrooms. One common reason cited by teachers is their concern about the…

Background: Many students carry negative beliefs about nuclear radiation and have concerns regarding the safety of nuclear power. However, most of these students have not had any personal or educational experiences with nuclear radiation or reactors on which to form these opinions. Purpose: To examine the influence that a visit to a nuclear…

This study reports the development of a 19-item Flame Test Concept Inventory, an assessment tool to measure students' understanding of atomic emission. Fifty-two students enrolled in secondary and postsecondary chemistry courses were interviewed about atomic emission and explicitly asked to explain flame test demonstrations and energy level…