Eleven year old Eleanor Mildenstein of Iowa City partnered with two other school mates to study the effects of radon. The project, which garnered the attention of state legislators and college president Sally Mason, placed second in the national Siemens We Can Save the World Challenge and won them a trip to Costa Rica.

Eleanor says when she grows up she wants to be a travel writer or a scientist. She recently worked with the State Hygienic Laboratory at the University of Iowa studying lead in fish sinkers.

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While many of her peers are using the summer for a relaxing break, an Iowa City girl is using her summer to study.

Eleanor Mildenstein, 11, has been collecting data to determine if home radon tests are as effective in summer as winter, lobbying legislators to allow the sale of electronic readers in Iowa, and speaking with builders and Realtors about the importance of radon mitigation systems.

“It was a lot of work at first, but in the end it was worth it,” Mildenstein said.

Iowa has the highest percentage of homes in the U.S. that are above Environmental Protection Agency recommended mitigation level, she said.

But it hasn’t been all sweat. Mildenstein, who will start seventh grade at South East Junior High this month, returned from a trip to Fortuna, Costa Rica, where she also discussed her radon project. The trip was a reward for her group placing second in the national Siemens We Can Save the World Challenge for their age range.

In recognition of National Radon Action Month, Becky Chenhall from the University of Georgia Cooperative Extension presented radon information to all of the science classes at Oconee Middle School in Oconee County, GA.

To prepare students to participate in the National Radon Poster Contest, Robert McLellan of the Todd County Health Department in Kentucky taught 7th grade science students about radon – infusing awareness with the science class’s curriculum.

One hundred and twenty-five students at Todd County Middle School learned about the periodic table of elements, radioactive decay and the make-up of atoms. To teach them about how radon and other elements’ atoms are formed, Robert used a hands-on activity to show students how to “build” their own atom nuclei. Reese’s Puffs cereal was used to represent neutrons and protons – the peanut butter Puffs being protons and the chocolate being neutrons. For students with peanut allergies, Apple Jacks cereal was used as a replacement. The students then learned how to find the number of neutrons by subtracting the atomic number from the rounded atomic mass.

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