With many of the nation’s schools closed due to COVID-19, students are now relying on online instruction or homeschooling. If you’re a parent or caretaker who has suddenly added “educator” to your resume, we can hopefully make your life easier. Check out these resources to teach your students about our nation’s number one source of carbon-free energy.
For Elementary School Students
- Video: In “Q&As with NRC Kids: Radiation and Other Questions,” the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission answers young students’ questions about the energy source with help from a nuclear physicist.
- Book: In “George’s Energy Adventure,” a boy named George learns how to power his city and the importance of working together at Edison's Inventors Camp.
- Book: “Marie’s Electric Adventure” follows Marie and her dog as they figure out why her night light went out and how to turn it back on.
- Book: Tour the Nukie Nuclear Power Plant in “Nuclear Power: How a Nuclear Power Plant Really Works!” as a blue bird and lab rat learn what’s going on inside.
For Middle School Students
- Lesson Plans: The Harnessed Atom—from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy—teaches all about the nitty gritty of atoms and nuclear energy. This extensive curriculum includes lesson plans, quizzes, vocabulary lists, games, activities and experiments.
- Video: “Inside a Nuclear Reactor Core” takes viewers to an Austrian nuclear power plant to explain how reactors work.
- Book: “Science Quest: Atomic Universe: The Quest to Discover Radioactivity” details the discovery of radioactivity, its many uses, and historical figures like Henri Becquerel and Marie Curie.
For High School Students
- Lesson Plan: Fueling the Future—part of the Navigating Nuclear program, which you can read more about below—teaches your student about the differences between nuclear fission and fusion, how to think critically about nuclear reactor designs, and includes a handout.
- Video: “Nuclear Fission and Nuclear Fusion: What Exactly Happens in These Processes?” explains the differences between fission and fusion in a six-minute animation.
- Book: “Nuclear Energy: What Everyone Needs to Know” walks your student through the history of nuclear energy, its applications and what the future holds in an extended question and answer format.
Additional Resources
- NEI’s website has additional resources. In our Fundamentals section, your student can learn the basics about what nuclear energy is, how a reactor works, what happens with nuclear waste, safety, applications of nuclear beyond electricity and more. Also, check out Just the Facts, which lays out the basics about nuclear in the United States.
- Navigating Nuclear is a free educational program from Discovery Education and the American Nuclear Society, with the mission of providing nuclear science and technology classroom resources for both teachers and students alike. It includes lesson plans and projects that can be done at home. Students also have the chance to hear from professionals in the field and even take a virtual field trip to Idaho National Laboratory and Palo Verde Generating Station in Arizona.
- The NRC’s Student Corner has lesson plans and activities about radiation, nuclear reactors and nuclear waste. It even includes a section on a day in the life of a resident inspector.
