Radiation Education Kit ADVACAM

The ADVACAM Radiation Education Kit is a setup of radiation camera, radioisotope sources, and accessories to better understand nuclear and particle physics. 

The kit brings the latest CERN technology to classrooms and allows students to discover the invisible world of radiation. The same technology, ADVACAM MiniPIX, is being used by NASA on the International Space Station to monitor dangerous space radiation that the astronauts are exposed daily

How it works

ADVACAM MiniPIX EDU comes with Pixet Basic software that provides a simple interface for analyzing radiation. The accessories and experiments are designed to help students better understand muons, alpha, beta, gamma, and other particles.

The kit is extensible beyond the provided experiments. The translation stage is a standard platform with dimensions provided. Thus, you may come up with your own ideas and perform novel experiments. Share the experiments on the online platform and discover the ideas from other creative people.

What will be seen

Students can see radioactivity visualized on their computer screen originating from common materials and objects such as piece of granit, ash or paper bag from vacuum cleaner or face mask. They can explore variation of the air radioactivity during the day, hunt for cosmic muons and check their directions, see how altitude affects presence of radiation types. They can try to prepare their own (safe) radioactive source and try to construct the shielding against radiation it emits. They can check the laws of radioactive decay. Students can directly observe how different radiation types interact with matter and what happens then.

Standardly observed radiation on earth create different types of patterns due to their different physical nature and interaction with the sensor of the detector. Cosmic muons create long line tracks through the detector volume; alpha particles create high energy charge blobs; electrons create zig zag patterns; and gamma create individual dots of varied energy.

Check project CERN@school at CERN or at IRIS website and examples of experiments for secondary schools here.

Components

• ADVACAM MiniPIX EDU camera (detector) 
• Pixet Basic software 
• Polonium-210 (ɑ source) 
• Strontium-90 (β source) 
• Cobalt-60 (ɣ and β source) 
• Thoriated electrodes, thorium-232(ɑ, β and ɣ source) 
• Translation stage 
• Camera holder 
• Source holder 
• Electrodes holder 
• Collimator 
• Detector cap 
• Aluminum, stainless steel, copper, brass and lead plates 
• Thumb screws 
• USB cable