Hello Vernier Customer, President Obama recently announced National Lab Day, a nationwide initiative to build local communities of support to foster hands-on learning among volunteers, students, and educators. Vernier is excited to provide innovative curriculum, training, and products to support this initiative and inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers. How will you participate in National Lab Day? Please send us your ideas to share with science teachers around the world. If we publish your idea, you will receive a $100 gift certificate for Vernier equipment. 1. Inexpensive Adiabatic Gas Law Apparatus 2. Watts Up with Your Energy Use? 3. Trying to Decide Which Kilt to Wear This Winter? 4. New Lab Book for STEM Education 5. LabQuest Wins Award of Excellence 6. Free Software Updates 7. New Spectrometer Versions of Chemistry Colorimeter Labs 1. Inexpensive Adiabatic Gas Law Apparatus Don't have hundreds of dollars to spend on an expensive adiabatic gas law device? Jamie Benigna rom The Roeper School in Birmingham, MI came up with a way to build one using a Gas Pressure Sensor, syringe, Surface Temperature Sensor, and hot glue. Demonstrating the relationship between pressure and temperature has never been easier or more affordable! http://www.vernier.com/innovate/120?utm_campaign=eblast-dec09&utm_medium=email&utm_source=all-customers&utm_content=text 2. Watts Up with Your Energy Use? Retired physics teachers Clarence Bakken (Palo Alto, CA) and Bob Sanders (Ontario, Canada) have written a lab that uses a Light Sensor and a Watts Up Pro to analyze the efficiency of a variety of light bulbs. Your students can look at different wattage bulbs to see how much light they produce per watt. They can then compare incandescent bulbs to compact fluorescent bulbs or other types. http://homepage.mac.com/cbakken/weblabs/power-light.html 3. Trying to Decide Which Kilt to Wear This Winter? Bill Sanderson, biology teacher at Asheville High School in Asheville, NC, used Temperature Probes to creatively analyze heat retention of several different kilt designs in order to make a scientific decision about which kilt would be best in cold weather conditions. Join the debate and see how Bill sought a scientifically valid answer to the question "Is an eight-yard wool kilt warmer than other kilts?" http://www.xmarksthescot.com/forum/effects_kilt_yardage_body_heat-t44833/index.html 4. New Lab Book for STEM Education Developed in collaboration with LEGO, we are happy to announce our new STEM 2 book, which includes labs and projects for physical science and engineering topics. http://www.vernier.com/cmat/stem2.html?utm_campaign=eblast-dec09&utm_medium=email&utm_source=all-customers&utm_content=text 5. LabQuest Wins Award of Excellence Technology & Learning chose the Vernier LabQuest as one of the best upgraded products in 2009. The My LabQuest Library web application allows teachers to create custom labs and add over 400 additional Vernier labs to LabQuest. http://www.techlearning.com/section/AwardsofExcellence 6. Free Software Updates This fall, we released Logger Pro 3.8 and LabQuest App 1.3. The LabQuest App upgrade improves LabQuest battery performance by 15% and adds support for Vernier's new gas chromatograph, the Mini GC. http://www.vernier.com/downloads/soft.html?utm_campaign=eblast-dec09&utm_medium=email&utm_source=all-customers&utm_content=text 7. New Spectrometer Versions of Chemistry Colorimeter Labs All of the Colorimeter labs in Chemistry with Vernier and Advanced Chemistry with Vernier now have directions for both the Colorimeter and Spectrometer. If you own these lab books, you can request an updated copy of the Word files on CD by filling out a request form. https://spreadsheets.google.com/embeddedform?key=tldg0qyfK8R8D9MtvTx-lXg Christine Vernier Vernier Software & Technology 13979 SW Millikan Way Beaverton, OR 97005-2886 toll free: (888) 837-6437 phone: (503) 277-2299 fax: (503) 277-2440 info@vernier.com Forward to a Friend: [forwardtoafriend] View Online: [webversion] Unsubscribe: [unsubscribe]