Pedagogical
Goals for Teaching about Alexander Graham Bell’s Metal Detector
Kansas State University Physics Department REU Program, sponsored by NSF
This program is funded by the National Science Foundation through grant number PHY-0851599.
Welcome
to my webpage. This page summarizes my experience doing research for the
Summer 2010 at Kansas State University in the lab of Physics Education Research.
Modern Miracle Medical Machines (MMMM) project at Kansas State University, an
activity is under development to teach the physics of electricity and magnetism
to undergraduate physics students and to undergraduate students that are not
physics majors that want to learn more about physics in medical imaging. We were trying to
find different techniques of how students can learn basics physics, mainly in
the areas of electricity and magnetism. We used similar actions of Alexander Bell
in the 19th Century when President Garfield was shot. Doctors tried
to help him, but during that time many medical materials were not invented so
they used their unsterilized fingers inside of the wound causing infection.
Alexander Graham Bell had recently invented the telephone and he insisted on
using his recent discovery on President Garfield to make a metal detector to
detect the bullet inside of him. Alexander Bell used a battery, two coils of
insulated wire, a circuit breaker, and one telephone. Bell invented the
induction balance to cancel out line interference on his telephone. We prepared
a modern day metal detector using some ideas from Alexander Graham Bell’s
attempts of perfecting his metal detector. The plan is to turn this into an
experiment for inexperienced physics students in the subjects of electricity
and magnetism. Physics Education Research is an important part of any physics
department and should use everyday experiences as examples to teach physics to
students.
Below, I describe the Project Goals, my Research Strategy, my Research Progress, and will eventually post my Final Presentation and Final Report. I post my homework assignments from our weekly REU scientific Ethics class, taught by Prof. Bruce Glymour and Prof. Amy Lara, and my reaction to Prof. Larry Weaver's Lectures. Scroll all the way down to learn more About Me. Finally, I've included some Useful Links.
Summary
Statement: As previously stated in my welcome, my research
project is based off Modern Miracle Medical Machines (MMMM) because this was an
attempt of early medical imaging at the time. An experiment Alexander Graham
Bell once did in the 19th century, which he builds a metal detector,
to detect the bullet inside of President Garfield’s body. We build a metal
detector and turned it into a lesson plan for students in electricity and
magnetism lesson.
Project Goals: To provide pedagogical
strategies for a better way of teaching electricity and magnetism to students through
a hands on experiment.
Research
Strategy: My strategy is to build a
metal detector and implement teaching strategies for students on how
electricity and magnetism works.
Research
Progress:
|
Week
1 |
Interview Physics Education Research Graduate Students on what their
research consist of. |
|
Week
2 |
Began reading Alexander Bell’s papers |
|
Week
3 |
Conducted experiments on Human Eye Model and Wave front Abberometry
experiment |
|
Week
4 |
Learned about basic circuits |
|
Week
5 |
Build a Wheat Stone Bridge |
|
Week
6 |
Learn about Electricity and Magnetism |
|
Week
7 |
Build metal detector |
|
Week
8 |
Test metal detector |
Final Presentation: My Powerpoint Presentation (pptx)
Final Report: My Final Report (pdf)
My Apparatus: A video of my functioning apparatus (QT)
Lectures by Dr. Weaver: I am very impressed with all of Dr. Weaver’s lectures. I know that I am only a sophomore and do not have as much experience in higher physics classes than most students in the REU Program, but Dr. Weaver makes me feel comfortable and explains thoroughly every subject matter he has to talk about. I never feel left out or do not understand because Dr. Weaver will make sure I understand everything. I will use all of my notes from Dr. Weaver’s lectures in the near future and they will be a great help for my higher physics classes that I will begin to take.
Ethics Class: I enjoy ethics class very much. I like to hear other people’s opinions and views on different subjects. I have high standing morals that I believe in and that no one can take away from me.
About Me: I
attend Dillard University in New Orleans, Louisiana. My majors are Physics and
Mechanical Engineering. I am a very determined out going young lady that
strives to do the best in everything that I do.
Useful Links:
American Physical Society Statements on Ethics
My Research group's home page
http://web.phys.ksu.edu/mmmm/Publications/
