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Radium/Radon Project



The EPA is cleaning up an old radium contaminated area in our city. One of
my students has done some research and found that one of the products of
radium decay is radon. Because he cannot use the actual clean-up site for a
science fair project he wonders if testing for radon in the houses near the
area might provide interesting. He wants to test for radon in the houses
adjacent to the area where some of the backyards are actually being removed
because of radium contamination and for radon in houses as you move away
from the site. This project sound great but the variables bother me. Will
testing in all wood-frame houses about the same square footages be enough?
We have not checked on basements but know that would be the best place to
begin investigating. Weather conditions would be the same for all the
houses but some of the houses do not look like they have been kept up so
weather-proofing might skew results - along with SO many other variable.

Any ideas? Encourage the student or scrap because of variables? Any
suggestions on a direction to give my student would be appreciated.

Marie
Physics teacher