Marie Curie was a pioneer in the study of radiation. Her discovery that radioactive particles were being emitted from the uranium atom led to the discovery of subatomic particles, defying the idea that the atom was indivisible. In addition, her work led to the discovery of two new elements; radium and polonium. In this two part lesson students will learn about Marie Curies early life and her work with her husband Pierre. Students will watch as Marie give her Nobel Prize acceptance speech. In the second part of this lesson students will learn about the application of her work including the concept of radioactive decay and dating methods used by science. Students will manipulate bones and rocks and solve simple half life problems. Class will conclude with a virtual trip to an imaging center where students will learn about her works applications in medicine.
Suggested IFXs: uranium atom, polonium atom, radium atom, alpha particle, beta particle, radio waves In VictoryXRs content tab there is a presentation of Marie Curie and her Nobel Prize acceptance speech. For the mobile radiology unit I created a mock set up: and ambulance, hospital bed and equipment like table, scalpel, mask, etc. In put a female in the ambulance drivers seat since woman were trained to operate these units For the half life activities I used a couple of bones and a rock and found some very simple problems. I had one IFX and one problem per station....used 4 stations. They used the 3D pens to solve problems. For example: In this bone, only 1/8 of the carbon remains. How may half lives have passed? If a half life is 6,000 years how old is this bone? If the half life of iodine is 8 days, how long will it take a 50g sample to decay to 6.25g.