Rare Isotopes At Your Fingertips: a game for introducing students to nuclear science*

Two units at Michigan State University, the Games for Entertainment and Learning (GEL) Lab and National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory (NSCL), are developing a touch-based digital game for physics outreach. Players will be able to explore the chart of the nuclides, accelerate stable nuclei, fragment them on a target, and handcraft rare isotopes from the excited protons and neutrons. Gameplay will lead them to the discovery of new isotopes, highlighting stability/instability, nucleosynthesis, radioactive decay, etc. The goal of this game is to bring an awareness and appreciation of nuclear science to a broader audience. Future funding sources will be used to further develop the game into a tool for the classroom, where students will learn about potential career paths in nuclear research.