Teaching Nuclear Physics

I had a good day in Nuclear Physics today. I taught about the mass absorption coefficient and radiation shielding. I learned that it not only varies from material to material, but also the energy of the gamma rays involved. The constant we were comparing it with was for the gamma decay of a Barium isotope. We were using cobalt 60 which has two gammas at vastly different and higher energies. The half thickness needed for the Barium isotope was 6cm. The half thickness for cobalt 60 was nearly 12 cm. It is cool when experiments teach the teacher something new. I am working on the Nuclear Physics Lecture for tomorrow. I am using a free textbook. Google DOE-HDBK-1019/1-93 to get a look at it. It is for teaching nuclear technicians, and fits well within the high school level. It covers some obscure AP physics topics.
We will be starting work on the big Barbie Jeeps in Thursday's Robotics Lab. I will initiate my guys into the mysteries of dc brushless motors , gear boxes and motor performance curves. There is a lot of engineering stuff that normal high school students don't normally get to look at. I love it when the drive of students to make something leads them to go beyond the normal high school envelope.