Education Resources

This poster explores information about the applications of nuclear science in your life.

Get your students collaborating, prototyping and testing with our In-Class Design Challenge. Designed to address the 2025 National Science Week theme of "Decoding the Universe", students to explore the fundamental languages of nature, from quantum science and mathematics to pattern recognition and symmetry.

Participate in live radiation demonstrations, cover syllabus content and visit ANSTO virtually during our online depth study classes for Year 12 Physics.

- Participate in live demonstrations to review the properties of alpha, beta and gamma radiation.
- Learn about radioactive decay, half-life and methods of detecting radiation, including with a cloud chamber.
- Define and understand applications of fission, fusion, binding energy and mass defect, and investigate the structure and function of the OPAL multipurpose reactor.
- Investigate the role and operation of particle accelerators at ANSTO.

Cost: $90 per class. 

Participate in live radiation demonstrations, cover syllabus content and visit ANSTO virtually during our online depth study classes for Year 12 Investigating Science.

- Participate in live demonstrations of the properties of radiation, shielding and technologies used to detect radiation.
- Learn about the OPAL multipurpose reactor, the use of nuclear medicine and their impact on society.
- Discuss the public perception of nuclear science and the regulation of scientific research.

Cost: $90 per class. 

Participate in live radiation demonstrations, cover syllabus content and visit ANSTO virtually during our online depth study classes for Year 11 Chemistry.

- Investigate properties of different radioisotopes and learn about their uses in medicine, industry and environmental research.
- Consider the scientific method and gather data during a live radiation experiment.
- See some of Australia's largest scientific infrastructure, including the OPAL multipurpose reactor.

Cost: $90 per class. 

In this workbook, students will:

- learn about radiocarbon dating and its applications to cultural heritage materials.
- analyse and interpret different texts and videos to better understand Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures.
- build literacy and numeracy capabilities using cloze passages, writing a glossary, interpreting graphs, answering comprehension questions, and making a timeline and a map to summarise the research stories. 

Nuclear medicine uses radiation to provide information about the functioning of a person's specific organs to diagnose or treat disease.

For three unknown medical radionuclides, students will graph their decay over time, use the graph to calculate their half-life, and determine the identify and use of each radionuclide using background information provided.

This resource guides students through how to interpret and analyse authentic research data, generated during a collaborative project between UNSW, UTS, ANSTO and Taronga Zoo Sydney. The project examines the use of high-resolution x-ray fluorescence as a tool to combat the international illegal wildlife trade (IWT) of short beaked echidnas, which are being removed from the wild and claimed as captive-bred. 

Students will:

- examine the adaptations of short beaked echidnas that increase their ability to survive in their environment
- explore the use of technology in contributing to the study and conservation of biodiversity
- construct simple graphs of the provided data using MS Excel, and interpret and analyse these graphs
- investigate how scientific knowledge interacts with social, economic, cultural and ethical issues.

Jack the Super Prawn lives in the Great Barrier Reef and uses his superpowers to protect the environment. Jack’s main job is to educate young readers on the impact of plastic and other types of pollution and to empower them to find a solution.

Created by Antoine Jaja, Jack’s first two adventure books entitled, “Drastic Plastic” and “Pollution Solution,” are now available in paperback in bookstores throughout Australia, as well as the ANSTO Shop. ANSTO provided scientific input into these stories that are helping to raise awareness of the impact of pollution on our waterways and the marine environment.

Let your students lead a 30-minute Q&A session with our ANSTO experts about one of the following three topics:

- Nuclear medicines
- Nuclear techniques to study the environment
- Fission and its applications in reactors

Please ensure your students do some pre-reading about the research topic and come prepared with questions to ask during the session. We also ask that teachers send us a copy of the student questions the day before, so we can adequately prepare for your session. Teachers must be present during the session with their students. 

Cost: Free