MODERN MIRACLE MEDICAL MACHINES: Research-Based Curriculum Enhancements for the Pre-Med Physics Course

无论是出于诊断还是治疗的目的，现代医学程序都涉及到当代物理学基本原理的复杂应用。参加物理入门课程的医学预科学生听说过很多这样的手术。然而，他们在学习物理时很少遇到这些应用。因此，失去了帮助这些学生在他们认为相关的程序和现代物理学之间建立联系的机会。为了解决这些问题，现代医学奇迹机器项目正在完成一项分两个阶段的工作，包括对学生学习的研究和教育材料的开发。在第一阶段，我们正在研究学生在将基本物理知识转移到当代医学中的物理应用时所使用的推理和模型。这项研究的结果随后被用于开发积极参与的教学材料，帮助学生了解20世纪和21世纪物理学在当代医学诊断和程序中的应用。研究部分的目标是加强现有的研究基础，即学生如何将他们的物理知识转移到其他主题。我们工作中这一部分的主要假设是，学生可以建立有助于理解物理现象的模型，并将其应用于外科激光和正电子发射断层扫描等工具。在此研究的基础上，我们正在创建模块化的教学材料。开发将当代物理学应用于医学的教学单元的目标是将当代物理学的应用整合到医学预科物理课程中，强调动手和思考活动，结合书面材料，互动多媒体和利用可视化技术。每个模块都相对较短，正在重新开发，以便教师可以取代现有的传统材料，而不需要对物理课程进行全面复习。一名独立评估员正在评估该项目活动的成效。评价侧重于形成性和总结性两个方面，并将采用混合方法(定性和定量)，其中包括观察、类比、业绩评估、网上调查、访谈和重点小组。研究和教育材料通过对学生学习进行基础研究，并通过创建资源向医学预科物理学生提供有关当代物理研究及其在医学上的应用的信息，促进了研究和教育的整合。通过在一所历史悠久的黑人大学(诺福克州立大学)和一所西班牙裔服务机构(德克萨斯大学埃尔帕索分校)测试我们的教材，我们试图确保这些教材吸引在科学领域代表性不足的学生。

Modern medical procedures, for both diagnostic and treatment purposes, involve sophisticated applications of fundamental principles of contemporary physics. Pre-medical students who are enrolled in an introductory physics 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 that 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 then 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 and minds-on activities, combine written materials, interactive multimedia and utilize visualization techniques. Each module is relatively short and is being 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 focuses on both formative and summative aspects and will utilize mixed-method approaches (qualitative and quantitative) that include observation, rubrics, performance assessments, Web-based surveys, interviews and focus groups. The research and educational materials is fostering 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. By testing our materials at a historically black university (Norfolk State University) and a Hispanic serving institution (University of Texas at El Paso), we are attempting to assure that the instructional materials appeal to students who are underrepresented in the sciences.