project (1 Viewer)

[bogus_wheel]

Hi Everyone,

I am a student at Sydney uni, and as part of my major in physics i am doing a project on the hsc option medical physics. i would really appreciate it if some of you could tell me what are the major areas you have trouble with in this option and what it is about them that you think makes them so difficult.

I will be using this info to come up with a set of guidelines for designing KickStart programs for physics options. kickstart is a program where yr 12s come in to the uni and do experiments with eqiuipment they dont have at school. some of you may have done it or will do it this year.

I would really appreciate your help with this.

Oh and since the project is about finding clear ways to answer common questions in medical physics, once i get some ideas i will post answers to the main problems here.


C

 

[helper]

Bogus are you after hands on activities that you may be able to offer or just difficult concepts?

 

[bogus_wheel]

Both
in terms of hands on i would like to know the experiments that are hard to do at school, and are difficult to understand.
and for theory i would like to know topics that you find hard and any suggestions as to why they are harder than others. eg i know MRI seems to be a big problem for most people

 

[helper]

From past experience.
Piezoelectric effect is something most schools can't demonstrate, except with cheap peizoelectric transducers that students can't see the changes in but most students can understand the principle.
Students understand the doppler effect by moving a source but little demonstrations on a moving medium.

Most have no problems with endoscopes or x-rays. CAT scans are a bit harder but not too bad.

Some have a bit of trouble understanding how positron emission can be used to detect position.

Yes MRI is the bit with the most misunderstanding
Most understand how a proton has an alignment with the field but have difficulties understanding why it can align in two ways of different energy levels.
Students have trouble with the idea of precision and relaxtion time.

A lot of the other problems are more the skills work than content related.
Hope that helps.

 

[bogus_wheel]

Thanks heaps. That's a huge help