High School Physical Science · Georgia SPS4

Nuclear Chemistry

The whole SPS4 unit, four pages deep. Split a uranium nucleus, run a chain reaction, watch four hundred atoms decay, and argue about nuclear power from evidence instead of from a gut feeling.

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Four pages, one per element of the standard. Each one opens with learning targets and I-can statements, then runs Learn → Practice → Print → Teacher Tools. Nothing is collected — no names, no codes, no logins.

Three beams of radiation, one stopped by paper, one by aluminum, one passing through lead
SPS4 · start here

Nuclear Notation & Radioactive Decay

What is inside the nucleus, how to write any isotope, and what alpha, beta and gamma do to it.

  • Build any isotope and watch the mass number move while the atomic number stays put — the mistake that wrecks the rest of the unit
  • A Decay Lab that fires alpha, beta or gamma at fifteen real isotopes, writes the equation, and shows both balance rows
  • Balancing nuclear equations, with the beta surprise staged deliberately: the atomic number goes up
  • The full uranium-238 chain to lead-206, clickable step by step, including the radon that ends up in basements
  • Three levels plus a speed round, and three worksheets with keys
Open Notation & Decay →
A nucleus splitting on the left and two nuclei joining on the right
SPS4.a

Fission & Fusion

The two ways a nucleus changes that are not decay — with three labs students actually operate.

  • Fire a neutron at uranium-235 and watch it split. Fire it again and get a different real product pair, which is the point
  • A chain reaction with a control rod slider: 2.50 supercritical, 1.01 critical, 0.70 subcritical, all running live
  • A fusion lab where you raise the temperature until the nuclei finally break through their own repulsion
  • "Can a reactor explode like a bomb?" answered with the enrichment numbers — and honest about how reactors can fail
  • Three levels plus a speed round, and three worksheets with keys
Open Fission & Fusion →
A decay curve above four shrinking pyramids of atoms
SPS4.b

Half-Life

Three routes to the same answer — a table, a formula, and a graph — so every student has one that works.

  • A 400-atom simulator that draws the real curve against the predicted one. They never quite match, and that is the lesson
  • A halving table you build one row at a time, which is enough to solve every problem on the page
  • N = N0(½)n worked forwards and backwards: find the mass, the time, or the starting amount
  • A decay curve you click to read values off, plus carbon dating and seventeen real isotopes
  • Feedback that names the mistake — subtracting instead of halving, "gone after two half-lives," dividing by n
Open Half-Life →
A nuclear power station at dusk
SPS4.c

Nuclear Energy: The Arguments

An argument standard, so the page is built deliberately balanced — and says so on the page.

  • Twelve evidence cards supporting nuclear power and twelve on the problems. The count is printed so students can check it
  • Six case studies, each with equal evidence for and against: Plant Vogtle in Burke County, Chernobyl, Fukushima, Three Mile Island, the waste problem, and the uses beyond electricity
  • A Stance Meter that hands you the three strongest arguments against whatever position you just picked
  • Practice on claim and evidence, fact versus opinion, misused evidence, and finding the counterargument that actually lands
  • A debate prep printable scored with a rubric — both sides earn identical marks
Open the Arguments →
Suggested order. Notation and decay first — every other page leans on reading an isotope symbol and balancing the two rows. After that, Fission & Fusion and Half-Life can go in either order. Save the arguments page for last, once students have the evidence to argue with.

What the standard asks for

SPS4 and its three elements, and where each one lives.

1

SPS4

Explain the changes in nuclear structure from fission, fusion and radioactive decay. → Notation & Decay, plus the notation the whole unit runs on.

2

SPS4.a

Develop a model illustrating how the nucleus changes in fission and fusion. → Fission & Fusion, where the three labs are the model.

3

SPS4.b

Use mathematics and computational thinking to explain half-life. → Half-Life, with a table, a formula and a graph.

4

SPS4.c

Construct arguments from evidence about applications, benefits and problems. → Nuclear Energy: The Arguments.

A note on the arguments page. SPS4.c asks students to construct an argument from evidence, not to reach a particular conclusion. That page is neutral on whether nuclear power is a good idea — the evidence deck is numerically balanced, and every position on the stance meter gets the same weight of pushback. It is not neutral on factual accuracy: "a reactor can explode like a bomb" is corrected, and so is "nuclear waste is no problem." Where the evidence is genuinely disputed, such as Chernobyl's long-term death toll, the page gives the range and names the disagreement.

Related

Other free tools that pair well with the nuclear unit.

Periodic Table Explorer cover art
Needed for this unit

Periodic Table Explorer

Students convert an atomic number back into an element symbol constantly on these pages. If that is shaky, run this first — it works with the wifi off.

Open the Explorer →
Simple Science Videos cover art
SPS4.a · SPS4.b · SPS4.c

Simple Science Videos

One-minute videos for all three elements of SPS4, in plain language. They are embedded on the pages too, but this is the whole library.

Browse the videos →
Chemistry Activities cover art
The rest of the unit

Chemistry Activities

Periodic table patterns, naming compounds, counting atoms, balancing equations and the matter unit — all the other chemistry pages.

Back to Chemistry →