Innovative Uses of Vernier Technology

Two of the 13 teams awarded grants by the Lemelson-MIT InvenTeams program in 2005 used our products extensively. The West Salem HS, OR team developed several methods of testing the ripeness of watermelon. One method was to measure the frequencies in the sound of the “thump” when the watermelon was hit by an object. They…

Subjects: Biology

Half life graph from Kinsey’sradiation treatment Richard Taylor (The Hockaday School, Dallas, TX) has a cat (Kinsey) that needed radiation treatment for feline hyperthyroidism. Richard used our Student Radiation Monitor, LabPro, and a TI-84 to monitor the radiation from Kinsey over several days. Kinsey was injected with I-131, which has a half life of about…

Subjects: Biology

Some time ago, Tim Folkerts of Barton Co. CC, Great Bend, KS, posted a note on one of the physics internet discussion groups about juggling on a Force Plate. He even collected data on the apparent “weight” of jugglers as they perform. Well, it turns out Vernier Software & Technology has its own juggler, Scott…

Subjects: Physics

Three different high school groups launched LabPros in rockets as part of the NASA Student Launch Initiative Program this spring. The teams were given the mission of building a rocket that would go one mile high carrying a scientific payload, take data, and then return safely. A team from University School of Milwaukee, WI launched…

Subjects: Physics

Carolyn Purington, a student of Jacklyn Bonneau at Massachusetts Academy of Math and Science, Worcester, MA, did a study of the effectiveness of sports chest protectors in preventing commotio cordis, which is the sometimes fatal damage caused by a blunt impact to the chest of young athletes. She studied various materials and designs, using our…

Subjects: Biology

Stephen J. Edberg (Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA) has written two interesting labs using our sensors to study topics in space science. One lab is modeled after spacecraft that use magnetometers to explore the interiors of planets. Students use our Magnetic Field Sensor to investigate models of planets made of clay that have magnets imbedded…

Subjects: Earth Science

Parker Moreland has been volunteering at an intermediate school in New Milford, CT, where he has come up with a clever modification of the “What Causes the Seasons” lab in our Earth Science with Computers book. First, instead of taping a temperature sensor to a globe, he opened a cardboard globe and mounted a Surface…

Subjects: Middle School Science

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…

Subjects: Environmental Science

Here is a nice lab idea by James Gordon, Amber Boyce, and Thoren Maule (Central Methodist University, Fayette, MO) that was published in The Chemical Educator (2004, 9, 1-2). Their experiment uses our Gas Pressure Sensor to collect data using the DataMate program and a TI calculator, but it can be easily adapted for Logger…

Subjects: Chemistry

Earth Science with Vernier Water Quality with Vernier If there’s one thing the state of Washington has plenty of, it’s water. Blessed by an abundance of rain, and laced with a network of lakes, rivers, streams, and ponds, the state is typically lush and green year-round. But a steadily shrinking ozone layer, acid rain, and…

Subjects: Water Quality