Chronology Current Month Current Thread Current Date
[Year List] [Month List (current year)] [Date Index] [Thread Index] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Date Prev] [Date Next]

Re: lower division radioactivity & ECG labs, anyone?



Dan,

I purchased the Vernier ekg probe and almost immediately went into the
cardiac business. First I administered one to each of the members of the
department, then showed it to students who wanted one done. It is extremely
easy to do. At this point I have no way of interpreting what we see other
than the usual handwaving reference to the three peaks seen in standard
textbooks. I intend to have some of our biologists give me a better
explanation as soon as I and they can find the time. A physiologist who
teaches part time for us was particularly impressed when he saw a demo of
the device and wants to use it in a class on physiology.

I did have a couple of interesting results. One was on about the fourth
student who volunteered. I could only pick up a single heart beat and
thought something was wrong until I realized that this was a varsity
swimmer who had a resting pulse of about 28. I was doing a single sweep of
about two seconds. Depending on when I triggered it I might or might not
pick up a heart beat.
The second was on one of our younger chemistry profs. His trace came out
complete garbage both times I tried to record it. I still haven't figured
out what was going on.

I too would be interesed in tutorials on the ekg (ecg?)

\At 09:10 PM 12/29/97 -0700, you wrote:
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 heartbeat
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 Univ
danmac@nau.edu http://www.phy.nau.edu/~danmac/homepage.html


Jim Riley
Department of Physics
Drury College
Springfield Missouri 65802
(417) 873 7233
e-mail: jriley@lib.drury.edu
fax: (417) 873 7432