Innovative Uses of Vernier Technology

Danielle Spaete (Pleasant Valley HS, IA) came up with a great new way to do egg-drop contests using our Force Plate. Students are given a 5-gallon bucket to be placed on a Force Plate. They then drop a basketball from a height of 1.5 meters into the bucket. After observing the forces applied by the…

Subjects: Physics

Jim Snyder and his students at Anderson Valley High School, in Boonville, CA, did an amazing high-altitude balloon launch during the annular eclipse this past spring. The balloon included a LabQuest, UVB Sensor, Anemometer, and two temperature sensors: a Thermocouple for external temperature readings (since they expected very low temperatures) and a Stainless Steel Temperature…

Subjects: Environmental Science, Physics

Museum visitors simulate a shark’s ability to detect electric current through use of a Current Probe and Logger Pro. For eight years, Tim Pula has created hands-on labs in science centers, including Discovery Place in Charlotte, NC. In 2005, with the support of Vernier consultant Walter Rohr, Tim began using Vernier sensors and Logger Pro…

Subjects: Physics

Inquiry experiments can be designed to be carried out using everyday household items. In this experiment, students use common beverages to investigate the relationship between conductivity and electrolyte levels. The experiment uses a Conductivity Probe and LabQuest 2 for data collection and analysis. Students begin the experiment by measuring the conductivity of distilled water. They…

Subjects: Chemistry

By Jack Randall Long ago, when I was a high school chemistry teacher, my students ran a forensics experiment using a Spectronic 20 spectrophotometer. The students measured the absorbance spectra of food dyes in various sports drinks to determine which drink had been “poisoned.” The Spectronic 20 used by my students worked very well, but…

Subjects: Chemistry

Lots of attention has recently been given to the issue of brain injuries to young people in sports activities. This has led to quite a few science projects looking into the effectiveness of helmets. Kevin Bruff of Portsmouth, RI, has worked with students to do a very nice study of inflatable helmets used for lacrosse…

Subjects: Engineering Education, Physics

Sam Barnum at West Point Grey Academy, Vancouver, BC, developed a lab for using the internal microphone on a LabQuest to measure the speed of sound. Barnum’s students assembled outside with claves or large pieces of wood. They clapped the claves together and measured the time for sound to echo off a nearby building. Download…

Subjects: Physics

Brian Lamore at The Village School in Houston, TX, crafted a simple experiment on string vibration. Lamore’s students connected a rubber band to a to create a cheap “guitar” with which to study the relationship between tension and frequency. Students plucked the rubber band and monitored the force readings at 1000 Hz. Using a rubber…

Subjects: Physics

Original Source: “iPad and Weightlessness,”” The Physics Teacher, May 2012, by Taoufik Nadji. Now that cell phones and tablet computers have built-in accelerometers, it is natural that physics instructors would want to use them for experiments. In this article, Nadji suggests (carefully) dropping an iPad® onto an outstretched sheet held by students. Since our Graphical…

Subjects: Physics

Analyzing Times from the Hundred-Meter Dash Many students were fascinated by the recent Olympics. One way to capitalize on this interest is to have the students use Olympic results to improve their graphing skills and learn some kinematics. We have created a Logger Pro file that uses historic times for the 100-meter dash to simulate…

Subjects: Physics