Because today's students often have a fragmented and incomplete understanding of the microscopic world, they do not have a knowledge base from which to make informed decisions on issues like nuclear power or the safe storage of nuclear waste. This project, a collaboration between physics and chemistry educators, is developing inquiry-based instructional materials to help students who are not majoring in science build more robust and coherent mental models of atomic-scale phenomena. The course is intended to help students understand phenomena like the origin of radioactive particles, the difference between ionizing and electromagnetic radiation, and the basic mechanism of tissue damage when exposed to radiation. The project incorporates both computer simulations and effective, inexpensive experiments into its instructional approach. As part of the project, a "concepts assessment" for these types of phenomena is being developed and tested.
