Poor performance of students in chemistry shows that they are having difficulties in learning, mastering the content, and applying what they have learned in examinations. The purpose of this study was to find out the difference in (a) retention of information by students taught nuclear chemistry using the culturo-techno-contextual approach (CTCA)…

This study focuses on examining the mental models of 11th and 12th-grade students attending a science high school in Turkey regarding the concept of the electron cloud. The study involved 72 students and employed the case study method. The precondition for selecting the sample was that the students had covered the unit on modern atomic theory in…

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…

We propose discussions and hands-on activities for GCSE and A-level students, covering a fundamental aspect of nuclear physics: the concept of bonds and the energy released (absorbed) when a bond is created (broken). This is the first of the series of papers named "A teaching guide of nuclear physics", whose main goal is to provide…

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…

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…

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…

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…

We present a new teaching and outreach activity based around the construction of a three-dimensional chart of isotopes using LEGO® bricks. The activity, "binding blocks", demonstrates nuclear and astrophysical processes through a seven-meter chart of all nuclear isotopes, built from over 26000 LEGO® bricks. It integrates A-Level and GCSE…

This article describes a nuclear chemistry unit on the Manhattan Project, a research effort that led to the development of the world's first nuclear weapons during World War II. The unit is appropriate for an introductory high school chemistry or physics course and takes from four to six weeks. The unit poses this essential question: "Over…

The Billotron is a device designed and built by the LPC Caen to illustrate the methods with which physicists are able to study the basic structure of matter, in particular the nucleus of the atom.

Practical experience is vital for promoting interest in science. Several aspects of chemistry are rarely taught in the secondary school curriculum, especially nuclear and radiochemistry. Therefore, we introduced radiochemistry to secondary school students through positron emission tomography (PET) associated with computer tomography (CT). PET-CT…

The current study aims to investigate students' representations of the atomic structure in a number of student cohorts with specific characteristics concerning age, grade, class curriculum and some individual differences, such as formal reasoning and field dependence/independence. Two specific task contexts, which were designed in accordance with…

The purpose of this study was to examine experienced chemistry teachers' pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) for two different topics in chemistry to better understand how PCK is specific to topic, including whether all components of PCK are topic-specific and to what degree. To explore the topic-specific nature of PCK, we examined two experienced…

In this article, the authors describe a lesson that uses the 5E Learning Cycle to help students not only understand the atomic model but also how Ernest Rutherford helped develop it. The lesson uses Rutherford's gold foil experiment to focus on three aspects of the nature of science: the empirical nature of science, the tentativeness of scientific…