Radioactive half-life

An animated PowerPoint illustrating the half-life of radioactive decay and the resulting exponential decay curve. It also explains the workings of a Geiger-muller tube.

IMPORTANT: MACROS & ACTIVEX CONTROLS MUST BE ENABLED

Support Material

1. Readme (instructions for whole lesson)
2. Learning outcomes (PowerPoint)
3. Starter activity (PowerPoint and worksheet)
4. Main activity (PowerPoint presentation)
5. Assessment (worksheets with answer sheets - differentiated)
6. Lesson notes
7. Plenary Activity (PowerPoint and worksheet)

It is intended for all science teachers but particularly those who are not physics specialists. It is, primarily, aimed at 14 to 16 year old pupils but can also be used at a higher level as a precursor to a more in-depth study of this topic. Normally, the activities would fill a 45 to 60 minute lesson.

If you buy this resource, please print the Readme document as it contains the instructions and details of the files included.

Learning Outcomes

What is radioactive dating?

**Learning outcomes

**Knowledge

**To identify the components in a Geiger-Muller tube.
**To reproduce the decay curve of a radioisotope.

**Analysis

To calculate the age of a radioisotope using radioactive dating techniques.

The learning outcomes are based on Bloom’s taxonomy of hierarchical classification: knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis and evaluation. The lesson title and learning outcomes are:

**Differentiation

The activities have varying degrees of differentiation; please refer to the Readme document.