Isotope

High school (ages 12+)
Science & Technology

Name:

Date:

Step 1 · Read the article

Open the article and read it at the level above. Then answer the questions below in your own words.

https://smallwhale.org/articles/isotope

Write what each word means, using the article.

Do not copy the article. Write two things you learned, the way you would explain them to a friend.

Answers below are taken from the article’s stored facts, so they match what the student read.

1. What is the isotopic abundance?The relative percentage of each isotope of an element found in nature
2. What is the nuclear reactor applications?Isotopes like Uranium-235 are fissile and used as fuel in nuclear reactors
3. How do isotopes behave in chemical reactions?Because isotopes have the same electron arrangement, they react almost exactly like the ordinary atoms of that element.
4. Why did scientists discover isotopes?Scientists saw that elements sometimes had fractional atomic weights and different masses, so Frederick Soddy in 1913 proposed isotopes to explain those differences.

Nucleons: Protons and neutrons collectively found within an atom's nucleus.
Half-Life: The time required for half of the radioactive atoms in a sample to decay.
Radioactive Series: A sequence of radioactive decays where one unstable isotope transforms into another until a stable isotope is formed.