EDUCATION COUNCIL REPORT Vic Montemayor, PhD, Fort Washington, PA

Summary of the 2016 Education Council Symposium

On Sunday morning, July 31, 2016, the Medical Physicists as Educators Committee (MPESC) hosted the annual Education Council Symposium during the national AAPM Annual Meeting in Washington, DC. The symposium was entitled, "Revitalizing Your Medical Physics Classroom: Some Examples and Thoughts from the Trenches." MPESC chair, Vic Montemayor, served as moderator for the symposium.

Vic opened the symposium with a brief history of the push for reform in the teaching of medical physics within the AAPM, starting with the 2008 AAPM Workshop on Becoming a Better Teacher of Medical Physics, which was organized by Bill Hendee. Vic's discussion covered the formation and evolution of MPESC, and the Innovation in Medical Physics Education Session that is run by MPESC and held each year at the AAPM Annual Meeting.

Vic's introduction was followed by Rebecca Howell speaking on "Making the Most of a One Hour Lecture with Alternative Teaching Methodologies: Implementing Project-based and Flipped Learning." In particular, Rebecca's presentation focused on two teaching methodologies: project-based learning and flipped learning. She also spoke about her experience in trying to implement these alternative teaching methodologies and how she overcame obstacles to implementation.

Shahid Naqvi then spoke about "Creative Simulation: A Flexible Hands-on Approach to Building a Deeper Understanding of Critical Concepts in Radiation Physics." More specifically, Shahid discussed the Monte Carlo code that he designed to help elucidate concepts in radiological dosimetry for medical physics students. He explained how he uses color-coded particle tracks from his code overlaid with dose distributions to help the students see, for example, the elusive connections between dose, kerma and electronic disequilibrium.

Finally, Jay Burmeister spoke on "Incorporating Active Learning into Medical Physics Education." Jay persuasively pulled together thoughts on why changing one's approach to the teaching of medical physics is worth serious consideration, and shared his experiences experimenting with active learning in his medical physics classrooms. Jay also discussed the student feedback that he received after the incorporation of active learning into his classroom, indicating that these course changes improved the students' abilities to actively assimilate the course content.

The symposium ended with a question/answer period, during which some productive discussion took place. The symposium was well attended and seemed to be well received by the participants.

A Request For Your Input

The Education Council has asked the Medical Physicists as Educators Committee (MPESC) to organize and run a 1.5-day workshop on Becoming a Better Teacher of Medical Physics, much in the spirit of the original workshop put together by Bill Hendee back in 2008. This workshop is to take place immediately following the conclusion of the 2018 Annual Meeting in Nashville, TN. MPESC has begun the planning of the workshop, and would be very interested in receiving your thoughts on what should be covered in the workshop. If you have any suggestions for topics that you would like to see covered, please send your suggestions to Vic Montemayor. All suggestions will be considered for inclusion by the Committee. Thank you!

Back to Article List Next Previous