Sample Critique of Web Project - Radiation Therapy (by Jordan and Greg), Phys25, Spring 2005

This critique is an example of what was expected for the take-home portion of an exam, where students were asked to evaluate one of the websites from the Spring 2005 course based on the criteria for the Web Project.

I believe this is a good website (especially for only 2 students) that generally satisfies the criteria for the web project.  The website is relevant, interesting, and presents the material in a way that is easy to understand.  The physics explanations are generally accurate, although somewhat lacking in detail.  The general appearance is nice, but for some reason, the text was too wide to fit on the screen, and I found it annoying to have to scroll left and right to read all the content.  Overall, I give it an A-.

Specific comments:

• No purpose statement explaning the rationale for the existence of the website.
• Under Radiation, while the general definition of radiation is accurate, it should be noted that electromagnetic radiation does not require any medium in order to propagate.  (Light can and does travel through the vacuum of space that exists throughout most of the universe.)  A distinction between nuclear and atomic radiation would be helpful here as well.
  
• In the particulate radiation section, the authors refer to the unstable parent atom decaying to a more
  stable cell, but both of these nouns should be nucleus, since this type of radiation only occurs from unstable nuclei and not electron levels (atomic transitions).
• Under Alpha and Beta Radiation, statements are made regarding the charge of the charge of the daughter atom relative to the parent atom, but the units are not specified (should be units of elemental charge "e" = 1.60 x 10^-19 C).
  
• Under Brachytherapy, it is not clear why someone would want to know the time to reach 1/4th the original activity (two half-lives), and the rationale is also unclear for calculating the change in mass for each radiactive isotope as it decays by emitting a gamma ray.  However, the calculations for this section are correct.
  
• Also with this calculation, the change in mass = 0.000030 u   is 1/16 the mass of an electron, not its "size".

Critique submitted by:  Dr. Duane Deardorff


Grading Rubric for this portion of Exam2:  (10 pts. maximum)
1 - Critique submitted (either via email or on paper)
2 - Honor pledge signed or affirmed (No consultation with other humans was allowed for this exam.)
2 - Overall evaluation and grade given (A to B range) - generally good site, but not perfect.
3 - Analysis of physics and accurate critique of unclear language or incorrect statements in website.
2 - Generally well-worded essay that is coherent, concise (less than 1 page), well organized, and fair.