Radon indoor measurements a way to educate to nuclear issue : Italian radiolab project

Since 2005 in Italy two programs were promoted from Ministry of Education and University and National Institute of Nuclear Physics (INFN) for scientific dissemination in the field of environmental radioactivity, devoted to High School students in many Italian regions that were involved in particular in indoor radon measurements. The idea of this project started from the consideration that the subjective perception (sensation) of the risk doesn’t correspond very often to the objective and real risk of human activity. In particular, our perception of radioactivity is often misleading because of the lack of accurate information. A way to approach this theme, to make the public more trusting of nuclear issues related also to energy and medical applications is to discuss radioactivity and ionizing radiation starting from young generations. Starting from an experimental approach the students can receive a basic but correct information on radioactivity subject. With this program students acquired awareness about environmental radioactivity, risks of inhalation of radon and its progeny and at the same time contributed to carry out radon monitoring, participating to all the experimental phases, from detectors preparation to data analysis. The focus of the project is the ‘‘laboratory’’, intended as a method to ‘‘know’’ through the ‘‘know how’’, a new way to teach and to learn. The laboratory is not only a physical place, where the students are directly involved in experimental activities, but also a method to learn and to acquire skills in physics. So the core idea of the project concerning the Italian secondary school is: (i) to provide the students a furnished laboratory at their school so that they can measure the radioactivity, starting from the natural components that are a part of our environment. In this exercise, the measurement of the 222Rn concentration is particularly well suited; (ii) to show the different types of radiations including ionizing radiations and how they are related each to the other; (iii) to demonstrate how ionizing radiations can be measured; (iv) to prove the fun a student can derive from discovery and detection of ionizing radiation. Different aspects derive from this kind of project: 1. the students can approach different subjects all correlated to physics measurements, in order to understand that their studies are not compartmentalized, but are the way to read the book of the nature; 2. to learn to present their results to the public; 3. the communication of the students involved with their family on this kind of matter; 4. allows teachers an update on matters related to modern physics; At the last but not the least the subject allows introducing concepts related to radioprotection and more generally on health physics. In this paper some of the many results of this project, carried forward for 10 years, will be presented.