Innovative Uses of Vernier Technology

John Melville, our Biology Staff Scientist, has found that our Goniometer is a great sensor for investigating running. As shown in the sample data below, students can use a LabQuest and the Goniometer to record joint angle data from the knee while running. The running waveform contains both a large and a small peak. Full…

Subjects: Human Physiology

Vernier and Oregon Forest Resources Institute team up to encourage teachers to Leave No Child Inside LabQuest 2 was the star of the show at a Fieldwork Workshop hosted by the Oregon Forest Resources Institute at the Oregon Garden in Silverton, OR, on a drizzly February day. The workshop highlighted how teachers could get outside…

Subjects: Environmental Science

The BlueView Transilluminator has a set of super bright blue LEDs that are used to illuminate fluorescent stains. It is often used to look at GFP-transformed bacterial colonies or agarose gels stained with SYBR® Safe DNA Gel Stain. But did you know that you can also use it to show that chlorophyll is fluorescent? Demonstrating…

Subjects: Biology

Evolution is one of the “big ideas” in the new AP Biology curriculum and one of the “core ideas” in the Framework for K–12 Science Education, the foundation for the Next Generation Science Standards. Many teachers have been asking how our sensors can be used to teach concepts in evolution. Recently, we took a standard…

Subjects: Biology

Use Logger Pro’s newly enhanced ability to control a Vernier Digital Control Unit (DCU) to challenge your students to create an alarm system that gives a warning when someone enters an area. The ability to turn on or off an electrical device in response to inputs from a digital sensor, an analog sensor, or time,…

Subjects: Engineering Education

Richard Born at Northern Illinois University developed an experiment for determining the resolving time of a Geiger-Müller (G-M) tube using the Vernier Radiation Monitor. By using split sources of radiation, students can determine the resolving time, T, by measuring the observed count rates of each source individually and then as a combined source. Download Richard’s…

Subjects: Physics

Richard Born at Northern Illinois University developed an experiment for determining the efficiency of a Geiger-Müller (G-M) tube using the new Vernier Radiation Monitor. The Radiation Monitor is mounted on a wooden stand, and the radioactive source is mounted a set distance from the G-M tube end window. Radiation counts are collected for ten one-minute…

Subjects: Physics

Don’t Take Your Countertops for Granite! A few years ago, there was a flurry of news stories warning of the dangers of radioactive granite countertops. Often caused by misinterpreted data, these claims led to public outcry and prompted the EPA to put together an FAQ regarding radioactivity in granite countertops. Richard Born of Northern Illinois…

Subjects: Physics

Which USB power adapter charges a completely dead iPad® more efficiently—the large 12-watt power supply that came with the iPad or the smaller 5-watt power supply that came with the iPhone®? We decided to measure the energy consumed during the charge cycle with a Watts Up Pro. As you can see from the graph, the…

Subjects: Physics

Vitamin B2, also known as Riboflavin, is a vital component of the cofactors that support all flavoproteins. The highest concentrations in the body are found in the liver, kidneys, and heart. This vitamin is very important to the heart because it plays a key role in allowing aerobic (oxygen-based) energy production to occur. A great…

Subjects: Biology, Human Physiology