Introduction


Preamble:

This is by no means the definitive how to manual on teaching a course leading to the Basic Qualification. Rather it is a series of bits and pieces, hopefully salient, to make your job of teaching the course easier. While the target audience for this CD/ROM is the first-time instructor, we hope the materials included will be useful to experienced instructors too. So it's off to the races.

Objectives:

This Instructors' Guide is designed to provide you with:

to assist you in teaching a course resulting in Industry Canada Certificate of Proficiency in Amateur Radio for the students. It is not designed to address the issue of electronics education in general.

Organization of the Instructor's Guide:

This is keyed to theRAC Study Guide For The Basic Examination, which we will abbreviate to RACSG. It follows the same chapter by chapter sequence as it appears in the RACSG.

Lesson Plans:

For each chapter we have included a Lesson Plan with a list of handouts, apparatus required, activities, etc. You may find that it will take you two or three classes to cover one chapter. However the reverse is also true; you might find yourself finishing two chapters in one class.

Chapter Quizzes:

We are indebted to Sandy Sandwith, VE4SZ, who broke down the complete IC Question Bank, all 958 of them, chapter by chapter. These are included with each lesson. The presentation is designed to be printable so you can print them with the handouts for each class. It should not be necessary to use all of the questions on one topic for a class; having the material sorted like this allows you to ensure that your lesson covers all relevant questions in the IC Question Bank while at the same time having material for a review at the end of the course and some exam quality questions to assign as homework.

You may also find that some of the questions lead to discussions in class.

Diagrams:

We have provided copies of all the diagrams in the RACSG as printable graphics. These are arranged as "slides", each containing one or several diagrams. Not all of the diagrams in the RACSG appear on slides. If you particularly want to use one that is not present, find the diagram number in the RACSG, then point your browser to the CD/ROM directory:

/bsgig02/bsgildwg/xxxx.ttt

where xxxx.ttt is the diagram number. ttt will usually be one of .gif or .jpg. Remember that the prefix (usually A, B or G) as shown on the diagram is part of its name. For those of you with case-sensitive systems (Mac, Linux or BSD) the prefix and suffix are lower case.

You can print these from your browser on either a letter-sized sheet of paper or directly onto an overhead slide transparency. Our testing showed that while the "slides" as included within the lesson plan sometimes exceed a full page in size, the printer divided the result into frames correctly; one per diagram.

You can buy transparency materials from any business stationary supplier. We do not suggest that you print them all, only the ones you think you might want to discuss in detail.

You can draw directly onto a transparency during the class in the extra space provided; if you use a dry erase marker then you can re-use the slide. We have also included copies of the block diagrams used in the IC exams a sheet of formulas, and other materials we think you may find useful.

Perhaps a better way to use the diagrams, if the technology is available, is to project the screen of your computer using a projector or a projection panel on an overhead projector. This avoids the cost and bulkiness of physical slides, but you can't write on it!

Organizing the Course

Instructors:

Is the course better taught by one or many? There is no easy answer but either technique will work if implemented properly. One person can teach the course but if the course is being run by a club it is a safe bet that you have a pool of expertise to draw on and it might be easier to use a group of instructors. However if you are using a series of "guest instructors" it is imperative that someone is in charge to ensure course continuity.

Trouble Shooting:

The biggest problem is usually a student who knows more than the instructor, especially in some of the theoretical areas. The secret here is to get him or her onside and use their expertise.

Math Skills:

It is important that each person in the course be able handle the simple algebra necessary to do the required calculations. A useful technique here is the "buddy system", pairing off the haves with the have-nots. Lack of confidence in one's math skills is perhaps the biggest challenge you will have to cope with. It may well be worth it to have a review problem or problem which uses the calculator as a part of every class.

Teaching From The Textbook:

The last thing you want to be doing is regurgitating the textbook. It is boring to the student and they already know that material. Do as little of this as possible. Use instead the suggested activities or other activities of your own devising.

Remember that the RACSG is designed to provide the minimum necessary to pass the IC exam, and enough background to understand it. It is not designed as a course in practical electronics. The most valuable role of your course is to relate the content of the book to how it is used in a functioning Amateur station. Please feel free to incorporate other material into the presentation such as magazines, the Handbook, antenna books, etc.

Demonstrations:

The core of any good presentation is to be able to provide analogies, comparisons, etc., that fix a point into the mind of the listener. Throughout this Guide you will find references at the beginning of each chapter to Apparatus, a suggested set up to reinforce a particular point or points to the students. We have tried to keep this simple and cheap. In most cases suggestions revolve around what is available around your house.

We have proposed many analogies comparing familiar effects and objects to the invisible electronic realm. In some cases the analogy is not strictly correct in a physical sense, as for example the path of an electron around an atom is not like the planets of the solar system, rather more like a solid shell with the position of the electron determined statistically from an equation; but is it easier to create an image in the mind of a planetary system or a misty sort of imaginary shell?

If you can think of better analogies or demonstrations please let us know.

You may also want to construct a few of the circuits shown in the RACSG. If you do this with clip leads (use the hook kind, they are more reliable than alligator clips) and prototype boards you can arbitrarily disconnect various components to show the effect they have in the overall circuit.

To show what is happening in a circuit, meters are essential. You can get a cheap digital meter at any electronics supplier. There is no requirement for extreme accuracy. One note on meters: a digital meter gives a very accurate indication but it does not easily show changing parameters. For this you need an analogue (D'Arsonval) meter. These are commonly available at hamfests at a very low price if you don't have a supply of your own. A large 0 - 100 mA milliameter and a 0 - 20 volt voltmeter are a good starting line-up. You might also want to get a 0 - 50 - 0 mA meter too.

If there are any well-equpped electronic experimenters in your club, you may want to see if you can borrow an oscilloscope and standing-wave bridge too.

Remember that the potential for short circuits is high in a clip lead environment and any power supply you use should be low voltage (not more than 15 V) and current limited. A demonstration of letting the smoke out of your components is memorable but not useful!

Batteries are good but they are expensive and will not last very long in this activity.

This is a work in progress and we welcome your criticisms and suggestions. We would also really like to hear about any activities that you have found useful.

....and last but certainly not least, Good Luck!

VA3GS
VA3JI
VE3DDX

2002/07