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Some suggested pathways
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Suggested pathway 1
In this pathway awareness-raising leads to discussion and application of the ideas, and allowance is made for the probability of the need to develop a deeper understanding of science ideas and concepts along the way. The pathway may be short or long and branching.
This pathway follows the constructivists or experience-based approach in which students become immersed in a topic and move to investigations when questions arise from their experience. They then apply the developed learnings to the real-life situations they encounter.
The pathway starts with all of the class working in groups on the student activity in Theme 4: Choosing nuclear futures. The consequent work of finding out information and completing activities in the themes of Theme 2: Life in the nuclear age and Theme 3: Using radiation could be assigned to different groups within the class. The findings are shared with the class on completion of the work.
The extent to which Theme 1: About radioactivity is pursued will depend upon the students' previous learning experiences.
 Suggested pathway 2
This is a traditional approach in which familiarity with the concepts related to radioactivity and atomic structure is developed before the exploration of applications and issues and the debates begin.
The approach includes provision of the students with the activities and information sheets in sequence from Theme 1 to Theme 4.
Theme 1 would be completed by all students. However, Themes 2, 3 and 4 may be completed by different groups of students, with each group required to report their findings to the rest of the class.
All students would complete the overall summary task, probably doing so in groups.
Suggested pathway 3
If time is limited you may choose one key focus such as:
- radiation for medicine, research or industry
- radioactivity for energy generation
- radioactivity and safety
- planning for the future.
You could then construct a pathway through the material for Safety or Nuclear science and technology in medicine.
Note that if you are taking an activity-based, constructivist approach, which puts the topic in context, allows students to show what they already know, to then find out what else they need to know in order to construct their understanding, you will follow the pathway from top to bottom. A traditional classroom approach which presents theory, then example and then asks students to express opinions would move from bottom to top of the pathway.
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