What health professionals need to know: Teaching nuclear physics without calculus

As physicists, we usually teach our research specialties to advanced students with educational backgrounds similar to our own. At the University of Wisconsin La Crosse, physics and health science students including Nuclear Medicine Technology and Radiation Therapy students enroll in an introductory nuclear physics class after only one semester of algebra-based physics. The material includes basic nuclear physics, nuclear decay, the interaction of radiation with matter, detector design, and health physics. This talk will focus on the reasoning behind teaching this course, the challenges and rewards working with this student population, and how to integrate this material into already existing courses.