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.
