My research interests are in active-learning curriculum development in physics as related to medicine and healthcare. In 2009, I established the Physics of Medicne Program at Rockhurst University as a new interdisciplinary program for students wishi...More
My research interests are in active-learning curriculum development in physics as related to medicine and healthcare. In 2009, I established the Physics of Medicne Program at Rockhurst University as a new interdisciplinary program for students wishing to attend clinical/professional graduate programs in various medical and healthcare fields. I developed four medically relevant, inquiry-based, hands-on courses for this program: Physics of the Body I and II, Physics of Medical Imaging and Optics in Medicine. The unique curricular design of the Physics of Medicine Program focuses on deepening students' physics understanding through the lens of medicine and healthcare, and it has dramatically increased the number and diversity of physics students at our university. Since its inception, the Physics of Medicine Program has increased the student population in physics courses offered past the introductory level by six-fold and the female population in upper division physics courses by ninety-six percent. Data from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) for 2016 indicates that Rockhurst University ranked 7th nationally for offering second degrees in physics and first nationally for awarding second degrees in physics to women. I have received funding for the Physics of Medicine Program through two National Science Foundation grants (Washington, D.C.), one for development of physics of medicine active learning curricular modules, and one for my work as a content seed contributor to the Living Physics Portal, https://www.livingphysicsportal.org, a National Science Foundation grant-funded, community-sourced, online platform for physics for the life sciences faculty. My research work has contributed three complete curricular modules to the LIving Physics Portal: Physics of the Respiratory System, Physics of the Cardiovascular System and Fiber Optics in Medicine. Each curricular module contains complete instructor resources including pedagogy, student learning objectives, materials, qualitative and quantitative assessment questions with solutions, building instructions for grant-developed hands-on apparatus, and suggestions for use in different educational environments.
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The Learner
