When asked to construct their model for the nucleus
of an atom we found that students used the clay balls in a
variety of ways. While some students used the clay balls
to represent the simplest case of the hydrogen nucleus
others used several clay balls to represent an atom
composed of multiple protons, neutrons and electrons.
After students created their clay model atom, they were
asked if the arrangement of balls had any significance.
The interviewer then asked different questions about the
properties and behavior of radioactive atoms during the
decay process. The specifics of these questions depended
on the type of response provided by students earlier in
their interview. Overall we were interested in probing
what students thought happens to an atom during
radioactive decay, whether or not the atom would
change (and if so how) during the decay process, and
what might cause the decay process to occur.