Utilization of radon progeny in air for education experiment on radiation

Radon progeny with short half-lives in the natural air was utilized in the education experiment on radiation that is for the students in the university of Tokyo. Advantage points of the radon progeny are; 1) their short half-lives around 30-50 minutes whose feature is adequate to draw the decay curve in the class and 2) that they exist in the natural air. The most important point of this education experiment is to perform sampling and measuring the radioactivity in the natural area, not in the radiation controlled area. Through the procedure, the students can understand that natural radio-nuclides surely exist around us. Sampling time is 30 minutes at a flow rate of around 60 litters per minute and a glass-fiber filter of GF/F is used, waiting time is one minute and measuring time is sequence of 10 times of 5 minutes (total measuring time; 35 minutes). The total experiment time is around 100 minutes. In the home-tasks, they calculate the radon progeny's concentration in air using the alpha decay curve of the radon progeny on the sampling filter: In addition, they investigate and learn the natural radiation/radioactivity. The radon progeny is useful and effective natural radioactivity for the radiation education. (author)