Medical Physics Kickstart: designing a senior high school physics workshop.

Abstract

A set of principles for the future design of senior high school physics workshops has been developed, with specific reference to medical physics. The principles address both specific challenges and misconceptions from the content, and general considerations related to the structure of the syllabus and therefore will provide a solid base for pedagogical design of workshops in other areas. Data were obtained from a variety of methods: Internet forum searches and focus groups with teachers and students were the main methods of research. The research indicated the key principles that need to be taken into consideration when designing the Medical Physics Kickstart session are: the four main syllabus problem areas of students, MRI, endoscope, ultrasound and diagnostic scans; the fact that many teachers do not have much experience in medical physics; and that teachers tend to teach the options last, after the core modules.