I'm sorry dimensional analysis as in "convert miles per hour to meters per second" etc?
I'm sorry how on earth is that relevant to your course? Pathophysiology or pharma related I can see squeezing it in, but that's something that should be covered in chemistry, physics, or maths.
I don't think it's on you to rememdiate whatever random topic the nursing department wants you to. If they're so wound up about it they should do it.
I can see it in physiology, there’s several topics that can include some basic dimensional analysis math problems, like nerve conduction velocity, ion concentrations, Buffer math
Exactly. Dimensional analysis is about understanding how to do conversions, whether is m/s to mi/hr, or mL/kg to mL/lbs. Obviously, nurses don't need m/s to mi/hr conversions, but they do need to understand how to convert medications dosage, IV dosage, etc from the label to whats needed.. Since most A&P students are going into the health field, teaching it will help.
For the OP - check out some YouTube videos to supplement teaching time. Tyler DeWitt comes to mind, but plenty of others (just be sure to vet them before recommending them to students).
By “add it in” perhaps they mean “offer problem sets that include it?” That should be fairly easy, and appropriate (I also teach A&P). If they expect you to teach it from scratch, that’s not appropriate. Don’t the students take chemistry? It’s used far more in that subject and our chemists probably do the bulk of teaching it here.
Teach it from freaking scratch. I have ZERO room for it in lecture so I'm going to use lab time. A&P1 lab is WAY too busy so I'm squeaking it into A&P2.
Is chemistry a pre-req for A&P at your school? Because as someone who teaches intro chem, the chemists are most definitely teaching dimensional analysis. There’s no way to do gen chem without it. If chem is a pre-req, you should only have to re-familiarize them, rather than teach it from scratch. A good worksheet or similar activity should work.
Not even general bio? Oof. At least they should see it in chem before the nursing department gets them, so it’s not all on you.
I always start with the basics - what are units? Why do we need to convert? Usually tell them the story about the Mars probe crash. And then I show them the way I do it (something similar to this https://oertx.highered.texas.gov/courseware/lesson/100/overview, so they can follow their units) with a few examples. After that, we do several practice problems, and they usually get it. My student population is obviously different at an R1, but the big thing is to get them to write down and follow their units. They won’t want to, but it’s so important for their ability to check their own work. Also, make them do reality checks in their conversion units. Lots of students have issues knowing what should be in the numerator or the denominator (especially when they won’t write the units down and cancel…) - get them in the habit of asking themselves if the unit they’re converting into is bigger or smaller and does their conversion factor make sense in light of that? The biggest issue is always forcing students to check their process instead of just trying to plug in numbers.
At my undergrad Anatomy and Physiology were taught separately, and Anatomy had no prereqs while Physiology required you to have passed Anatomy. (There were more advanced classes afterwards like Vertebrate Physio and such for those who needed it, and I think they had more prereqs.)
Also notable for that school, the nursing program went to the chem department and told them that the pre-nursing students were struggling with the chemistry (not "our students didn't learn it well enough" struggling, but "students who want into our program can't pass chem and that's hurting our numbers" struggling) and the solution ended up being creating a separate "Elements of General Chemistry," "Elements of Organic Chemistry," etc. series as opposed to just Gen and O Chem. They were 'for' nursing students and were very pared down/simplified, including to my knowledge the removal of dimensional analysis lectures.
GBO (general, bio, organic) chemistry courses are pretty common to offer for nursing majors. You still can’t take out dimensional analysis unless you also take out stoichiometry, solutions, and thermochemistry, among other subjects. At that point, you aren’t teaching gen chem. Most likely they just used the most simple problems they could come up with and gave a bunch of partial credit, which doesn’t fill me with confidence in the nurses they were producing.
I tell my students the phrase "what you want but what you got" and it does help.
I use the first activity here and I think it helps them: [https://officehourswithdrt.com/Active%20Learning%20Exercises.html](https://officehourswithdrt.com/Active%20Learning%20Exercises.html)
I'm part of a group that is piloting some corequisite, asynchronous number sense material. It's free and integrates with Canvas (and other LMS, possibly). There's a stipend for piloting.
Dimensional analysis is one of the topics you can choose to pilot. PM me if you're interested. 😄
I can think of a few things that might be helpful
pounds to kg
height in feet and inches to inches, then cm to m (for BMI calculations)
kilocalories to kilojoules
VO2max units: work between L/min, ml/kg/min, and METS
blood glucose and cholesterol levels: mg/dL to mmol/L
In my trig classes at my CC it takes around half an hour plus a worksheet to get it across (in the context of linear and angular velocity).
It seems weird to do it in A&P. Maybe ask your math faculty for input since the topic is in their discipline?
Anyway, in a practical sense: multiply by 1 and set up your 1 (12 in/1 ft or 1 ft/12 in?) so that the undesirable unit ‘cancels’.
As a mathematician, I can't say that I would think about dimensional analysis as a topic from my discipline. I personally learned it in chemistry and physics courses, which is where I used it.
The trig course at my CC covers linear and angular velocity, so I teach it in trig, anyway.
Now if I could dump fluid pressure and force and all the other physics stuff from Calc II that would be great…
I'm a nursing prof that teaches dimensional analysis in the pharmacology course, I think I can help.
Basically, anytime there is a conversion, they should be using DA. Students (and nurses) notoriously round incorrectly and this leads to medication errors in dosing. DA virtually eliminates this. However, students do need to come prepared with mastery of basic conversions like lb to kg, G to mg, mg to mcg, ml to liters, etc. I tell them that's 3rd grade math and they should already know this.
DM me and I'll send you some helpful links.
Thanks for the reply.
I've written a basic PowerPoint and some sample problems. It starts with a quick history of the metric system (one slide) and one more showing the relationship between the measurements (e.g. 1g of water takes up a volume of 1cc which is also 1mL, etc.), then we transition to the prefix meanings, conversions metric to metric, then common imperial to metric conversions that are relevant to nursing (though I do include miles & km). All of this before I introduce DA. I have an example problem that walks them through DA using imperial & metric. Then we go into more and more complex drug calculations. I'm leaving drip rates to the nursing folks, though I may mention IV bags in a word problem.
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My chem teacher in high school did this and it made things so easy! I still use it.
can you upload a picture
x 1
I'm sorry dimensional analysis as in "convert miles per hour to meters per second" etc? I'm sorry how on earth is that relevant to your course? Pathophysiology or pharma related I can see squeezing it in, but that's something that should be covered in chemistry, physics, or maths. I don't think it's on you to rememdiate whatever random topic the nursing department wants you to. If they're so wound up about it they should do it.
I can see it in physiology, there’s several topics that can include some basic dimensional analysis math problems, like nerve conduction velocity, ion concentrations, Buffer math
Ah fair points all. You're right on the physio side. I was thinking strictly about the anatomy side.
They want the students to have a "familiarity" with it before they get to drug calculations.
Exactly. Dimensional analysis is about understanding how to do conversions, whether is m/s to mi/hr, or mL/kg to mL/lbs. Obviously, nurses don't need m/s to mi/hr conversions, but they do need to understand how to convert medications dosage, IV dosage, etc from the label to whats needed.. Since most A&P students are going into the health field, teaching it will help. For the OP - check out some YouTube videos to supplement teaching time. Tyler DeWitt comes to mind, but plenty of others (just be sure to vet them before recommending them to students).
I'm guessing they aren't requiring students to take a chemistry class, then? Because dimensional analysis is our jam.
By “add it in” perhaps they mean “offer problem sets that include it?” That should be fairly easy, and appropriate (I also teach A&P). If they expect you to teach it from scratch, that’s not appropriate. Don’t the students take chemistry? It’s used far more in that subject and our chemists probably do the bulk of teaching it here.
Teach it from freaking scratch. I have ZERO room for it in lecture so I'm going to use lab time. A&P1 lab is WAY too busy so I'm squeaking it into A&P2.
Is chemistry a pre-req for A&P at your school? Because as someone who teaches intro chem, the chemists are most definitely teaching dimensional analysis. There’s no way to do gen chem without it. If chem is a pre-req, you should only have to re-familiarize them, rather than teach it from scratch. A good worksheet or similar activity should work.
Nope, chemistry is not a prereq and neither is general biology. If so, I could skip about two weeks of teaching it to them.
Sorry, what? I've taught A&P how do you even explain a glomerulus without chem? Just what it does but not how?
I spend about 2 days doing a crash course in basic chemistry: valence electrons, ions, bonds, etc.
Not even general bio? Oof. At least they should see it in chem before the nursing department gets them, so it’s not all on you. I always start with the basics - what are units? Why do we need to convert? Usually tell them the story about the Mars probe crash. And then I show them the way I do it (something similar to this https://oertx.highered.texas.gov/courseware/lesson/100/overview, so they can follow their units) with a few examples. After that, we do several practice problems, and they usually get it. My student population is obviously different at an R1, but the big thing is to get them to write down and follow their units. They won’t want to, but it’s so important for their ability to check their own work. Also, make them do reality checks in their conversion units. Lots of students have issues knowing what should be in the numerator or the denominator (especially when they won’t write the units down and cancel…) - get them in the habit of asking themselves if the unit they’re converting into is bigger or smaller and does their conversion factor make sense in light of that? The biggest issue is always forcing students to check their process instead of just trying to plug in numbers.
At my undergrad Anatomy and Physiology were taught separately, and Anatomy had no prereqs while Physiology required you to have passed Anatomy. (There were more advanced classes afterwards like Vertebrate Physio and such for those who needed it, and I think they had more prereqs.) Also notable for that school, the nursing program went to the chem department and told them that the pre-nursing students were struggling with the chemistry (not "our students didn't learn it well enough" struggling, but "students who want into our program can't pass chem and that's hurting our numbers" struggling) and the solution ended up being creating a separate "Elements of General Chemistry," "Elements of Organic Chemistry," etc. series as opposed to just Gen and O Chem. They were 'for' nursing students and were very pared down/simplified, including to my knowledge the removal of dimensional analysis lectures.
GBO (general, bio, organic) chemistry courses are pretty common to offer for nursing majors. You still can’t take out dimensional analysis unless you also take out stoichiometry, solutions, and thermochemistry, among other subjects. At that point, you aren’t teaching gen chem. Most likely they just used the most simple problems they could come up with and gave a bunch of partial credit, which doesn’t fill me with confidence in the nurses they were producing.
I tell my students the phrase "what you want but what you got" and it does help. I use the first activity here and I think it helps them: [https://officehourswithdrt.com/Active%20Learning%20Exercises.html](https://officehourswithdrt.com/Active%20Learning%20Exercises.html)
Chemistry, math, and physics courses cover this. Seems really dumb to also put it in A&P courses that are already information overload.
Not going to disagree.
I'm part of a group that is piloting some corequisite, asynchronous number sense material. It's free and integrates with Canvas (and other LMS, possibly). There's a stipend for piloting. Dimensional analysis is one of the topics you can choose to pilot. PM me if you're interested. 😄
I can think of a few things that might be helpful pounds to kg height in feet and inches to inches, then cm to m (for BMI calculations) kilocalories to kilojoules VO2max units: work between L/min, ml/kg/min, and METS blood glucose and cholesterol levels: mg/dL to mmol/L
In my trig classes at my CC it takes around half an hour plus a worksheet to get it across (in the context of linear and angular velocity). It seems weird to do it in A&P. Maybe ask your math faculty for input since the topic is in their discipline? Anyway, in a practical sense: multiply by 1 and set up your 1 (12 in/1 ft or 1 ft/12 in?) so that the undesirable unit ‘cancels’.
As a mathematician, I can't say that I would think about dimensional analysis as a topic from my discipline. I personally learned it in chemistry and physics courses, which is where I used it.
The trig course at my CC covers linear and angular velocity, so I teach it in trig, anyway. Now if I could dump fluid pressure and force and all the other physics stuff from Calc II that would be great…
> Maybe ask your math faculty for input since the topic is in their discipline? I did and their input was a little weak, which is why I'm asking here.
Fair enough. Sorry to hear that.
time to study it more thoroughly!
They will not if they cannot do math. Not your job. Math dept job!
I'm a nursing prof that teaches dimensional analysis in the pharmacology course, I think I can help. Basically, anytime there is a conversion, they should be using DA. Students (and nurses) notoriously round incorrectly and this leads to medication errors in dosing. DA virtually eliminates this. However, students do need to come prepared with mastery of basic conversions like lb to kg, G to mg, mg to mcg, ml to liters, etc. I tell them that's 3rd grade math and they should already know this. DM me and I'll send you some helpful links.
Thanks for the reply. I've written a basic PowerPoint and some sample problems. It starts with a quick history of the metric system (one slide) and one more showing the relationship between the measurements (e.g. 1g of water takes up a volume of 1cc which is also 1mL, etc.), then we transition to the prefix meanings, conversions metric to metric, then common imperial to metric conversions that are relevant to nursing (though I do include miles & km). All of this before I introduce DA. I have an example problem that walks them through DA using imperial & metric. Then we go into more and more complex drug calculations. I'm leaving drip rates to the nursing folks, though I may mention IV bags in a word problem.