Corporate Classroom II: The Atoms Family

Let’s Color and Do Activities with<br> THE ATOMS FAMILY

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"Just like a beach is made of many grains of sand, everything in our world is made up of many very tiny pieces too small to be seen. We call these pieces ATOMS.

Atoms stay close, like a family. Most atoms are not breakable, but some atoms are. When they are split, the smaller atom pieces fly apart very fast. This is called ATOMIC or NUCLEAR ENERGY. Energy is the ability to do some kind of work. Color the Atoms Family!”

(Back to “Corporate Classroom II”)

 

"The breakable atoms are split inside a big container called a NUCLEAR REACTOR. The nuclear reactor is a very important part of the NUCLEAR POWER PLANT, the place where ELECTRICITY is made -- just as your heart is important to your body.

Many of these solid fuel pellets are put in a container inside the reactor. Here the tiny atoms in these pellets are split. Their pieces hit other atoms, and they are split, too. This energy action makes heat. The heat boils water, which turns into steam — just like in a tea kettle.”

(Back to “Corporate Classroom II”)

 

"Nuclear power plants, like this one, need water to make electricity.

Which of the two paths will bring water to the nuclear power plant?”

(Back to “Corporate Classroom II”)

 

"Radiation also is all around us.

Most of the radiation in our world comes from natural things. Radiation comes from our food and water, the houses we live in, the air we breathe, our bodies, the sun, the earth, and outer space. All give off some radiation, just as the sun gives off heat and light. Color our world!”

(Back to “Corporate Classroom II”)

 

"The sun gives off one kind of radiation. It helps plants and trees grow. But too much radiation can hurt us. We need protection, called SHIELDING.

To protect ourselves from too much sunlight, we use sun lotion or wear clothes as shielding. See experiment 2 in back of this book.

Color this picture and describe which things are helping to shield the children from the sun’s radiation.”

(Back to “Corporate Classroom II”)

 

"Radiation can be measured using something called a GEIGER COUNTER.

For example, the mesh bags or mantles that are burned inside a camping lantern for light give off a small amount of radiation energy. A Geiger counter will click when placed near one of these bags to tell us it is giving off radiation and is RADIOACTIVE. (The lantern itself shields us from some of this radiation.)”

(Back to “Corporate Classroom II”)

 

"This picture is a label put on many things and places where there is stronger radiation.

Color the picture as marked above.

This label is always colored MAGENTA, a shade of purple, on a yellow background. You should not touch or go into places marked with this label.”

(Back to “Corporate Classroom II”)

 

"Atoms that give off radiation energy are called RADIOISOTOPES. Radioisotopes can be used to do many things besides making electricity.

For example, sometimes radioisotopes in medicine are put into your body to treat an illness. They also can help take pictures of what’s happening inside your body. The radioisotope can be measured or TRACED as it goes through your body. See experiment 3 in back of this book.”

(Back to “Corporate Classroom II”)

 

"Another radioisotope is used in SMOKE DETECTORS. Smoke detectors protect us and our homes.

The radioisotope in a smoke detector helps to sense when there is smoke and heat. The detector warns us with a loud buzzing noise.

Radioisotopes also are used to measure and control how much soda pop is in a can, or how thick paper is as it is being made.

Radiation is used to make non-stick frypans, too! (But it does not make the pan radioactive.)”

(Back to “Corporate Classroom II”)

 

"Experiment 1 -- Make Your Own Model Turbine

Make the model following this design.
What does this experiment remind you of? In this book we explained how we make electricity. Going from left to right, try to match the parts of this experiment to the parts of a nuclear power plant.

Be careful! Ask an adult for help! Keep your hands away from the steam. Steam is hot and it can burn you.”

(Back to “Corporate Classroom II”)

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WE'LL BE BLUNT

It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

The short of it: Last year, we had to cut $1 million from our budget so we could have any chance of breaking even by the time our fiscal year ended in June. And despite a huge rally from so many of you leading up to the deadline, we still came up a bit short on the whole. We canā€™t let that happen again. We have no wiggle room to begin with, and now we have a hole to dig out of.

Readers also told us to just give it to you straight when we need to ask for your support, and seeing how matter-of-factly explaining our inner workings, our challenges and finances, can bring more of you in has been a real silver lining. So our online membership lead, Brian, lays it all out for you in his personal, insider account (that literally puts his skin in the game!) of how urgent things are right now.

The upshot: Being able to rally $253,000 in donations over these next few weeks is vitally important simply because it is the number that keeps us right on track, helping make sure we don't end up with a bigger gap than can be filled again, helping us avoid any significant (and knowable) cash-flow crunches for now. We used to be more nonchalant about coming up short this time of year, thinking we can make it by the time June rolls around. Not anymore.

Because the in-depth journalism on underreported beats and unique perspectives on the daily news you turn to Mother Jones for is only possible because readers fund us. Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism we exist to do. The only investors who wonā€™t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its futureā€”you.

And we need readers to show up for us big timeā€”again.

Getting just 10 percent of the people who care enough about our work to be reading this blurb to part with a few bucks would be utterly transformative for us, and that's very much what we need to keep charging hard in this financially uncertain, high-stakes year.

If you can right now, please support the journalism you get from Mother Jones with a donation at whatever amount works for you. And please do it now, before you move on to whatever you're about to do next and think maybe you'll get to it later, because every gift matters and we really need to see a strong response if we're going to raise the $253,000 we need in less than three weeks.

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