Innovative Uses of Vernier Technology

In addition to our large variety of experiments offered in our curriculum, teachers use their creativity to bring excitement to the classroom. Find out how our sensors have made the ordinary into the extraordinary!

Doing something innovative in your classroom? Tell us about it by e-mail at innovativeuses@vernier.com

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Showing 18 results in Technology, most recent entries shown first.

Title	Excerpt	Products Used
Force Plate Used to Measure Forces Exerted by Screws	As part of Project Lead The Way engineering courses, Ken Kessenich at Pius XI High School in Milwaukee, WI started teaching a new unit that involves simple machines. He wanted his student to see REAL problems instead of simulations to demonstrate effort force and mechanical advantage. To measure the force exerted by screws, he uses the Force Plate and Vernier LabQuest. ... [more] Science Subjects: Engineering, Physics, Technology	Force Plate Vernier LabQuest
Anscombe's Quartet	Have you ever wondered about how much outlier points influence the curve fits you do in software like Logger Pro? Or, how much you can rely on measures like the slope uncertainty or the correlation coefficient as a judge of how good a line fits your data? Way back in 1973, a statistician named Anscombe wrote a paper about the importance of actually graphing your data, and not just depending on statistical analysis. He created four sets of XY data pairs, each with identical ave... [more] Science Subjects: Technology	Logger Pro 3
Battery Life Comparison	Brian Lamore, physical science teacher at the Chinquapin School in Highlands, Texas, wanted to get his students to investigate which battery was the best. Based on their experiences (and with a little help from advertising) the students made their predictions. Using four Voltage Probes connected to a LabPro, Brian's students measured the changes in voltage as the batteries supplied power to a simple circuit. Each battery was in a circuit that powered a 6.2 W lamp. The results were fa... [more] Science Subjects: Engineering, Physics, Technology	Voltage Probe LabPro Interface Logger Pro 3
Investigating Resistivity	Alan Gleue, physics teacher at Lawrence High School in Lawrence, Kansas, called our tech support line with a challenge. He wanted to be able to use Vernier sensors to investigate resistivity in copper wire. The issue troubling Alan - how to measure small changes in voltage with enough precision to be able to see the relationship between wire length, cross-sectional area, and resistance. At the Vernier end of the call was our own Rick Sorensen. Rick is one of the co-authors of our physics ... [more] Science Subjects: Engineering, Physics, Technology	Logger Pro 3 LabPro Interface Instrumentation Amplifier Current Probe Vernier Circuit Board
Students Monitor Classroom Conditions	Two groups of local science students from Westview High School, Beaverton, OR, recently won honors with projects using our sensors to monitor their school environment. Julio Montano, Jose Perez, and Josean Perez used our temperature sensors to monitor classroom temperature and how it affects student attention span. The project won awards at the science fair. One of the science fair judges told the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) about it, and the students w... [more] Science Subjects: Environmental, General Science, Physical Science, Technology	CO₂ Gas Sensor Stainless Steel Temperature Probe LabPro Interface Logger Pro 3
Forensics Death Scene Investigation	Students at Susquehanna Township High School in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, participated in a program where the students studied the life cycle of the blowfly and its relationship to the decomposition of a deer. This program motivated 9th grade student Drew Evans to do some further investigation for his science fair project. Drew was intrigued with the effect that temperature had on the activity of the insects. Knowing that death scene investigations focus on deter... [more] Science Subjects: Biology, General Science, Integrated, Life Science, Physical Science, Technology	Logger Pro 3 LabPro Interface Stainless Steel Temperature Probe
Measuring a Plant's Response to Gravity	Judy Day, with the Science House, a NC State University K-12 science outreach program, has developed an activity investigating a plant's response to gravity. Judy uses a ProScope USB digital microscope to record changes over time in a plant that has been placed on its side. For best results, Judy recommends using an Arabidopsis thaliana (the wild variety) having an inflorescence stem at least 10 cm long. Here is a brief description of Judy's procedure: ... [more] Science Subjects: Biology, Environmental, General Science, Life Science, Middle School Science, Physical Science, Technology	Logger Pro 3 Basic ProScope HR Kit
Investigating Airport Sound Levels	Sound levels of airplanes at take off and landing Anyone who lives along the flight path of a major airport knows that sound pollution is an unpleasant fact of life. Riley Wilson, Tim Horton, and Mario Bautista, 8th grade students at Hughes Middle School in Long Beach, California, know this all too well, often having instruction interrupted as planes fly over their school. Airplane noise in the Long Beach area is a frequent topic ... [more] Science Subjects: Earth Science, Engineering, General Science, Middle School Science, Physics, Technology, Environmental, Life Science	Sound Level Meter LabPro Interface Logger Pro 3
Measuring Stress Limits of Printer Ribbon	Paul Lulai, physics instructor at Saint Anthony Village Senior High School in Saint Anthony Village, MN, developed an activity to measure the stress limits of printer ribbon. Paul�s students use a Force Sensor and Motion Detector to find the yield point of a single loop of the ribbon. Paul uses printer ribbon, since its yield point is typically within the range of the Force Sensor. Students create two loops on either end of a small length of printer ribbon. (Each loop is taped ... [more] Science Subjects: Engineering, Physics, Technology	Dual-Range Force Sensor Motion Detector LabPro Interface Logger Pro 3
High Altitude Experiment	Anna Mika, 7th grade teacher at Cumberland Middle School in Cumberland, WI, got her class involved in a high altitude experiment. Anna is a member of the Network of Educator Astronaut Teachers Program, a NASA-sponsored organization, and her class is part of the NASA Explorer Schools program. Anna worked with her students to design a research project that NASA could implement on a high-altitude research balloon. The students� project was to measure the protection from UV radiation provided b... [more] Science Subjects: Physics, Technology	UVB Sensor LabPro Interface Logger Pro 3
Crash Test Dummies	David Drummer, physics teacher at Kutztown Area High School in Kutztown, PA uses a K'NEX� rollercoaster and Vernier 25-g Accelerometer to investigate impulse. His students mount the Accelerometer in a rollercoaster car and roll it down the coaster into a brick barrier. David has his students use the acceleration data and the mass of their car to produce a Force vs. Time graph for the impact. David then challenges his students to design crash protection using paper and masking tape to r... [more] Science Subjects: Physics, Technology	25-g Accelerometer LabPro Interface Logger Pro 3
Thanksgiving Experiments	Michele Perin of St. Louis, Missouri gets pretty creative with her Vernier labs. She doesn't have a lab for EVERY season yet, but she has written some tasty experiments for Thanksgiving! How Quickly Does Your Potato Cool? Have you ever sat down to a Thanksgiving dinner only to find that the potatoes have gotten cold while other dishes were being readied? Does the size of the potatoes affect how long they stay hot? Download experiment (PDF 229 KB) ... [more] Science Subjects: General Science, Physical Science, Physics, Physiology, Technology, Biology, Life Science	Dual-Range Force Sensor pH Sensor Stainless Steel Temperature Probe LabPro Interface Logger Pro 3
Hurricane Rita	While preparing to evacuate the Chinquapin School in Highlands, Texas (just east of Houston), physics teacher Brian Lamore had the presence of mind to recognize a unique data-collection opportunity. Brian set up a LabPro and Barometer in his apartment. He ran a length of rubber tubing from the Barometer through an open window. Even though the power went out sometime during the storm, the LabPro collected data throughout the storm using battery power. Brian made it through the storm safel... [more] Science Subjects: Earth Science, Environmental, General Science, Physics, Technology	Logger Pro 3 LabPro Interface Barometer
GIS Mapping Enhances Salinity Study	Students gathering data on Laguna Madre In March 2005, Olathe North HS (Olathe, KS) students Kevin Skov and Greg May, along with teacher Steve Obenhaus, took a trip to the southern reaches of Texas to explore Laguna Madre's hypersaline characteristics. Laguna Madre, a large body of shallow water separating Padre Island from the South Texas mainland, is one of only a few hypersaline lagoons in the world. Using a Vernier Salinity Sensor, LabPro, and a laptop PC running L... [more] Science Subjects: Water Quality, Environmental, Life Science, Technology	LabPro Interface Logger Pro 3 Salinity Sensor
Accelerations in Snowboarding	I've often wondered about the magnitudes of accelerations as I ride my snowboard at Mt. Hood in Oregon. Last summer I did some experiments, and here is one data set from those trials. (And yes, I did say summer- we have snow year- round on the glaciers of Mt. Hood.) While this discussion is about snowboarding, it also illustrates how you can take data in the field for any experiment. When making deep, carved turns on skis or snowboard there is a significant feeling of co... [more] Science Subjects: Physics, Physiology, Technology	Logger Pro 3 LabPro Interface 3-Axis Accelerometer
Juggling with Logger Pro	Check out www.jug.net/wt/jgpl.htm for a remarkably complete collection of information about the science of juggling. William V. Thayer, (St. Louis CC at Meramec, Kirkwood, MO) even includes this sample graph made with Logger Pro showing the position of the balls during a juggling session. He made this graph using special gloves with aluminum-foil strips wired so that if adjacent strips were shorted out, the voltage goes to five volts. He then juggled metal-coated balls, reading the voltage fr... [more] Science Subjects: General Science, Integrated, Physics, Physiology, Technology, Biology	Logger Pro 3 Voltage Probe
Internet Data Collection	Kyle Forinash and Raymond Wisman (Indiana University Southeast, New Albany, IN) describe their use of LabPro and other interfaces in the article "Simple Internet Data Collection for Physics Laboratories" in the April 2002 issue of The American Journal of Physics. The web site for their software is http://physics.ius.edu/~kyle/K/DataCollect/LabPro.html. LabVIEW programming software provides a feature to create and post remote panels over the internet. We have written a program in LabVIEW t... [more] Science Subjects: Physics, Technology	LabPro Interface
Hurricane Charley	Curt Witthoff, Secondary Math/Science Specialist for Collier County Public Schools in Naples, FL, recorded this data as Hurricane Charley pounded the coastline near his house. He used Vernier sensors with a LabPro and TI graphing calculator. The equipment was placed in a box with the sensors exposed, and left on his patio. The times on the x-axis correspond to the 24-hour clock on August 13, 2004. The pressure data tells us that the eye of the hurricane passed clo... [more] Science Subjects: Earth Science, Environmental, General Science, Physics, Technology	Barometer Light Sensor Relative Humidity Sensor Stainless Steel Temperature Probe LabPro Interface Logger Pro 3