INNOVATIVE SOFTWARE FOR NUCLEAR PHYSICS EDUCATION

DEVELOPING INNOVATIVE EDUCATIONAL SOFTWARE FOR NUCLEAR PHYSICS WILL PROVIDE EFFECTIVE TOOLS FOR ADVANCING NUCLEAR PHYSICS. TOPICS COVERED IN NUCLEAR COURSES ARE INTRIGUING BUT OFTEN DIFFICULT TO EXPLORE. RELATIONAL PROPERTIES OF NUCLEI, THEORETICAL MODELS, AND LABORATORY EXPERIMENTS ARE CUMBERSOME TO APPLY IN THESE SETTINGS. TEXBOOKS PROVIDE ONLY A LIMITED AND STATIC VIEW OF NUCLEAR PHYSICS. STUDENTS ARE LIMITED BECAUSE THEY CANNOT EASILY EXPLORE THOSE EXPERIMENTS AND FACILITIES THEY WILL USE THROUGH MUCH OF THEIR CAREER. EDUCATIONAL TOOLS CAN MORE EFFECTIVELY INTRODUCE STUDENTS TO CONCEPTS, ALLOW THEM TO MORE THOROUGHLY EXPLORE THOSE TOPICS, AND FACILITATE THE STUDENTS' DEVELOPMENT IN THE FIELD OF NUCLEAR PHYSICS. THIS PHASE I PROJECT SEEKS TO DEVELOP CREATIVE AND INNOVATIVE MULTIMEDIA SOFTWARE FOR NUCLEAR PHYSICS EDUCATION. KEY CONCEPTS IN NUCLEAR PHYSICS CAN BE STUDIED USING HIGHLY-INTERACTIVE TUTORIALS THAT INTEGRATE TEXT, SOUND, ANIMATION, AND COMPUTER-BASED VIDEOS. SOME WILL BE ELECTRONIC LABORATORIES USING REAL OR SIMULATED DATA. EXAMPLES INCLUDE STATISTICS, RADIOACTIVE DECAY, AND BEGINNING THROUGH ADVANCED COUNTING TECHNIQUES. ELECTRONIC LABORATORIES ON NUCLEAR MODELS INTRODUCE THE CONCEPTS OF THE MODELS, ALONG WITH THEIR APPLICATIONS AND LIMITATIONS. TUTORIALS AND LABORATORIES ARE SUPPLEMENTED WITH COMPUTER-BASED MOVIES USING VIDEOS AVAILABLE THROUGH DOE LABORATORIES, TIME-DEPENDENT MOVIES CREATED WITHIN THE SOFTWARE, AND OTHER VIDEOS GENERATED THROUGH THE COURSE OF THIS PROJECT. THE FORMAT MAY INCLUDE ELECTRONICALLY TOURING DETECTORS AND FACILITIES, VIEWING RESULTS OF EXPERIMENTS, OR EVEN LISTENING TO A NOTED SCIENTIST TALK ABOUT A SIGNIFICANT RESEARCH RESULT. ELECTRONIC BIBLIOGRAPHIES, TIME LINES OF RESULTS, AND EVEN ELECTRONIC REPRINTS OF MAJOR RESEARCH PAPERS INTRODUCE STUDENTS TO THE EVOLUTION OF NUCLEAR PHYSICS RESEARCH. ALL TUTORIALS AND LABORATORIES ARE ACCESSIBLE THROUGH AN INTERACTIVE ELECTRONIC ENCYCLOPEDIA WITH AN ASSOCIATED DICTIONARY. SPECIAL FEATURES ALLOW STUDENTS AND INSTRUCTORS TO DEFINE PATHWAYS THROUGH THE TUTORIALS AND INFORMATION, AND PERMIT STUDENTS TO FIND SPECIFIC REFERENCES. THE NUCLEAR PHYSICS SOFTWARE PROVIDES INSTRUCTORS WITH EDUCATIONAL TOOLS FOR CLASSROOM USE, FOR USE IN ELECTRONIC