UChicago Instructional Physics Laboratories

We are currently interested in coming up with new teaching labs to be used in the 120s sequence that would be of relevance to the subject matter and approach that 120s students will experience throughout their academic and professional careers. As such, we would need to reconcile the different pedagogical perspectives that are employed in the biology and the physics classroom given that most of the 120s students are bio and biochem majors. We would also need to introduce systems that may be of interest to these students, be it in the content matter, the experimental methods that are implemented, etc., while also teaching important physics concepts and perspectives that are invaluable in a thorough scientific education.

Before we start thinking about and designing the specific experiments that students will work on, a series of learning objectives needs to be developed. This would include but not be limited to the overall lab course structure (single week vs multiple week labs, lab notebook and take home reports vs a single lab write up, etc.) and the learning outcome of the whole course: what knowledge and skills do we want students to take away from performing these experiments? These will be better fleshed out in the future as we come up and research new ideas and think about the curriculum.

In the following sections, we will be making note of some concepts or themes that may be viable for this sort of experiment. Some of them will have already been made by other universities or groups, while others may be of our own inspiration. One thing to keep in mind is that the labs should have a clear interdisciplinary application to the life sciences while also teaching important physical concepts and quantitative skills, such as error analysis, model building and testing, experimental design, and technical skills (see Moore, Ginniani, and Losert).

Introduction to physical modeling and data analysis

• Hagen Poiseuille lab - exploring fluid flow in different pipe configurations and their applications to circulatory systems in bodies (part of the NEXUS labs). This particular instance would require microfluidic devices in which microspheres are observed flowing through different pathways in series and in parallel
• Dropping and tracking objects in air, water, and glycerol mixtures (NEXUS). This could be a nice first lab as an introduction to physical modeling, tracking software, data representation, and error analysis
• Modelling surface tension: an introduction to scaling.
  • Students can study the main parameters that det

Modeling and applications of physical properties in biological systems

• Electrophoresis of silica microspheres.
  • Summary:
    • The motion of microspheres suspended in water can be tracked while they are subjected to a uniform electric field. This has many biological applications, notably in the determination of charge to mass ratios of nucleic acids and other biomolecules.
  • Learning goals:
    • develop a model of the forces acting on a system in aqueous solution and test the validity of that model by manipulating observable parameters;
    • think about the regimes in which a model is valid and where it breaks down or is no longer applicable;
    • apply knowledge of electrodynamics and fluid dynamics to study chemical and biological systems.
• Cell membrane potentials as complex circuits
  • Summary:
    • Modeling cell membrane potentials using Kirchoff's laws (see Kutzner and Bryson). This can be used to model ion transport in cells as well as neuron-to-neuron communication (also a neat introduction to control systems, but may be too advanced). The membrane capacitance can also be modeled, which is of relevance in determining the rate of communication between neurons through an effective RC circuit (see Golowasch and Nadim; see also the cable equation).
• A lab on magnetic resonance?
• Electric Fields
  • Field Mapping
  • Electrophoresis of Pigments
  • Electric Fields Part 3: Electrophoresis of pigments in chromatography paper, cont.

Applying physical models in medicine and beyond

• Atomic and molecular spectra and oximetry
  • Summary:
    • Absorption spectra and pulse oximetry. This lab can serve as a study of the Beer-Lambert law of transmission, absorption spectra of materials, and their relevant medical applications. It would also highlight the importance of relative measurements when talking about feasible measurements and experiments.
• Sonography and ultrasound as an introduction to medical imaging using the principles of waves and acoustics.
• Computed tomography of transparent media using visible light