Research-Based Curriculum Enhancements for the Pre-Med Physics Course
Modern medical procedures – diagnostic and treatment – involve sophisticated applications of fundamental principles of contemporary physics. Pre-medical students who are enrolled in an introductory physics course (the pre-med course) have heard of many such procedures. Yet, they will seldom encounter these applications while studying physics. Thus, the opportunity to help these students make a connection between procedures which they consider relevant and modern physics is lost.
To address these concerns the Modern Medical Miracle Machines project is completing a two stage effort involving both research on student learning and development of educational materials. During the first stage we are conducting research on the reasoning and models that students use as they transfer basic physics knowledge to the application of physics in contemporary medicine. The results of this research are being used to develop active engagement teaching-learning materials to help students learn about the applications of 20th and 21st Century physics to contemporary medical diagnosis and procedures.
The goal of the research component is the enhancement of the existing research base on how students transfer their knowledge of physics to other topics. The principal hypothesis of this component of our work is that students can build models that aid in the understanding of physical phenomena and applications to tools such as surgical lasers and positron emission tomography.
Building on this research foundation we are creating modular instructional materials. The goals of the development of instructional units that introduce applications of contemporary physics to medicine are to integrate applications of contemporary physics into the pre-med physics course, emphasize hands-on & minds-on activities, combine written materials, interactive multimedia and utilize visualization techniques. Each module is relatively short and will be redeveloped so that teachers can substitute for existing, traditional materials without a need for a complete revision in the physics course.
An independent evaluator is assessing the effectiveness of the project’s activities. The evaluation is focusing on both formative and summative aspects and is utilizing mixed-method approaches (qualitative and quantitative) that include observation, rubrics, performance assessments, Web-based surveys, interviews (some via telecom) and focus groups.
The research and educational materials will foster the integration of research and education by both conducting fundamental research on student learning and by creating resources to bring to the pre-med physics students information about contemporary research in physics and its applications to medicine. Showing how contemporary physics is related to human endeavors such as medicine will appeal to a more diverse audience than the traditional physics course does. By testing our materials at a historically black university (Norfolk State University) and a Hispanic serving institution (University of Texas at El Paso), we will assure that the instructional materials appeal to students who are underrepresented in the sciences. Finally, our efforts are a step toward changing the culture of teaching introductory physics so that contemporary physics and contemporary medical applications are integrated throughout the algebra-based physics course. Thus, our results will expose students to topics that excite physicists but are seldom studied carefully by introductory students and show some of the value of contemporary physics to addressing important social and human issues.