Faculty Member and Alumnus Collaborate on Published Piece

Academy archivist, former science instructor and moderator of Gilmour’s Amateur Radio Club Br. Ken Kane, C.S.C. collaborated with Greg DiLisi ’83, an education and school psychology professor at John Carroll University, and two others on an article titled *“The Lady Be Good: A Case Study in Radio Frequency Direction Finders” published in the March issue of The Physics Teacher. 

The article presents classroom and lab exercises that the group piloted for use in an undergraduate interdisciplinary science course. Using the disappearance of “Lady Be Good,” a WW II B-24 bomber, as a backdrop, the activities centered on students building radio frequency direction finders (RDFs) and using them to navigate from various spots on campus back to their “home base.” The theory of operation behind RDFs provides a great opportunity to teach a variety of science and math concepts.

The article was the latest in a series of case studies members of the group have produced to share lessons learned and best practices for teaching topics in physics, engineering, problem solving, critical thinking and ethics. 

 

*This article may be downloaded for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and AIP Publishing. This article appeared in The Physics Teacher, Vol. 59, March 2021 and may be found at https://aapt.scitation.org/doi/pdf/10.1119/10.0003657.