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Re: lower division radioactivity & ECG labs, anyone?



Dear Dan,
If you are interested in Radon collection and analysis, may I suggest that
you (a) look at Abstract BI 19 in the N.O. meeting program, and (b) e-mail
an indication of your interest to Dr. Eszter T=F3th (Eszter Toth
<et@rad.lauder.hu> ) to whom a copy of this note is also being sent. She
is interested in cooperative arrangements with American physics teachers
and can provide you with lots of information and advice. She is a very
good person to work with.

She also has all the students in a class stand up and on a signal toss a
coin. Those who come up heads sit down. This is repeated to get a visible
decay curve.

Good luck in your work.
Best regards,
Len

Hello all;

I'd like to run two new labs this semester, or at least experiment with
getting them in place. One will be a lab on radioactivity, the other
on ECG phenomenon -- part of a refocusing of our lab course -- and I was
wondering what sucessful experiences people had with these kind of labs
for mainly pre-med/health science people in an algebra-based physics
course (E&M; Optics and some modern physics).

I think the dice activity (throwing a few hundred dice a few times
and removing a chosen number as decayed) looks good and maybe a RADON
collection/analysis. I have no means of activating samples (that'd really
crank some individuals over the edge hereabouts :^). What are
others doing that is worthwhile? Shielding??

A second experiment I'm thinking of working up is an ECG experiment. We'd
get the Vernier probeware, and then calculate field intensities based on
the heartbeat plots. Maybe do an examination of the basics of the heartbea=
t
as well. Can elementary ECG analysis tutorials that include numerical
calculations be found somewheres in the literature?

These are both really vague because I'm whistling in the dark -- will
someone with experience or proper references steer me in a direction where =
I
can refine my scope for these labs or relate personal experiences that were=
/
are meaningful to you on these topics?

Dan the ever-demanding

Dan MacIsaac, Assistant Professor of Physics and Astronomy, Northern AZ Uni=
v
danmac@nau.edu http://www.phy.nau.edu/~danmac/homepage.html