Medical Imaging Mosaic
Objectives
- Describe the major features, strengths, and limitations of five major imaging modalities.
- Students should understand basic properties of waves including frequency, wavelength, transverse vs. longitudinal, wave speed in different materials, the wave equation, power, intensity, decibels, Doppler effect, and interference.
- Students should be able to explain how an ultrasound image is created.
- Describe the difference between cancerous and non-cancerous cells.
Description
This is a mosaic intended to teach the physics of waves in an interesting and purpose-driven format. The mosaic was written with a high school physics or accelerated physics classroom in mind. This mosaic is intended to teach the fundamentals, including the basic physics behind each, of five imaging modalities. The mosaic also poses a challenge to the students to suggest a way to do a task with imaging that is not normally or easily done with imaging through the brief study of cancerous cells and tumors.
Concepts and Skills
Anatomy and Physiology
- Basic anatomy of abdomen
- Basic concept of difference between healthy and cancerous cell
Imaging
- Overview of ultrasound, PET, MRI, x-ray, CT
Physics
- Wave basics
- Principle of Linear Superposition
- Power and intensity
- Diffraction
- Refraction
- Interference
- Doppler effect
Ultrasound
- A-mode
- M-mode
- B-mode
- Doppler
Math
- Location of an object using intersecting planes
- Logarithmic scale in decibel calculations
- Solving algebraic and trigonometric equations
Engineering
- Analysis problems
- Design
Activities
- Students use the ADAM Anatomy program to learn about the anatomy of internal organs
- Students image a leaf using the sun’s rays and exposed film
- Verneir’s Speed of Sound Lab
- Interference Lab
Time
This mosaic is expected to take twenty-five 50-minute class periods.