Fifty years of Utrecht radiation practicals at secondary schools

The practical in the 1970s It was fifty years ago this week that Utrecht physicists started giving a practicum with radioactive substances at secondary schools. Today still, they visit half of all secondary schools in the Netherlands every year with this ionizing radiation practical (ISP) . By now, more than 600,000 students have performed the experiments. To celebrate the milestone, Dean Isabel Arends will receive a special edition of the practicum book on Thursday, 17 November. Tradition. "On a standard morning, we set off with three cars full of equipment and a supervisor to three different secondary schools in the Netherlands," says Rob van Rijn , who is one of the supervisors. "Once there, together with teachers and toas from the school, we set up over twenty experiments.