Rare Isotopes At Your Fingertips: a game for introducing students to nuclear science
ORAL
Abstract
Two units at Michigan State University, the Games for Entertainment and Learning (GEL) Lab and National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory (NSCL), are developing a touch-based digital game for physics outreach. Players will be able to explore the chart of the nuclides, accelerate stable nuclei, fragment them on a target, and handcraft rare isotopes from the excited protons and neutrons. Gameplay will lead them to the discovery of new isotopes, highlighting stability/instability, nucleosynthesis, radioactive decay, etc. The goal of this game is to bring an awareness and appreciation of nuclear science to a broader audience. Future funding sources will be used to further develop the game into a tool for the classroom, where students will learn about potential career paths in nuclear research.
*Work supported by grants from the American Physical Society and Michigan State University
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