Innovative Uses News
From our solar dashboard, you can see a live camera view of the roof solar panels, our weather station data, and a live display of the power production of the panels. There are also tables and graphs you can use to investigate the energy production of the panels over time. It is our hope that you will be able to use this information to facilitate the study of solar energy production with your students.
You can download the background information, complete with data and sample questions from our Solar Dashboard »
Brian Lamore, physics teacher at the Chinquapin School, Highlands, Texas, has his students build a “Beakman’s” Motor to study electromagnetic induction. This simple motor can be built in a single class period and the activity is always a favorite of his students. But nothing makes an activity more interesting than a little competition, so Brian challenges his students to build the motor that will spin the fastest.
10 year-old Ben Carter of Nashville, Tennessee, was curious about the light given off by a firefly. Ben has inherited his natural curiosity and love of science from his father, Vernier consultant David Carter. Ben borrowed his dad’s Vernier Spectrometer and used it to capture the emission spectra of the fireflies.
Ben Carter, a 12-year-old from Nashville, TN, captured a beautiful time-lapse video of a monarch caterpillar pupating into a chrysalis using Logger Pro and a ProScope HR camera.
Continue reading about Capturing Monarch Metamorphosis in Logger Pro…
Clarence Bakken, a retired physics teacher from California, explored insulating capabilities of different wall materials. Clarence used an Infrared Thermometer to study the rate at which heat is transferred through the walls in a model house.
Have you ever seen an LED-based headlamp that has selectable brightness? Sometimes the brightness change is from turning on more or fewer LEDs, but sometimes the individual LEDs seem to change brightness. How does this work? Usually when you reduce the voltage across an LED, it just goes out. We looked into this question using a Vernier Light Sensor and a LabQuest.
Peter O’Connor, a teacher from Boonsboro High School in Maryland, described a situation facing many teachers—lots of students and only a few computers.
“Having used Logger Pro for many years dating back to the ULI days, my school has been happy using it in our labs. However, as class size increased, we have had issues with maintaining a small lab group size for each lab. This is a large issue when it comes to doing Vernier labs with computers.”
Vernier consultant, Walter Rohr, came across an article published in the February 1989 Journal of Chem Ed that described a method of resolving mixtures with overlapping spectra without determining molar absorptivities or complicated mathematics. The method developed by Blanco called Multi-Wavelength Linear Regression Analysis, or MLRA, allows the composition of a binary mixture with overlapping spectra to be resolved with only three measurements—the absorbance of a standard solution for each component, and the unknown mixture itself.
Continue reading about Spectrophotometric Analysis of the Metals in a U.S. Five-Cent Coin…
Brillion Middle School teachers Ryan Peterson and Matt Van Thiel have their 8th grade Earth Science students do a fun and engaging activity on topographic mapping. The activity is based on the Earth Science with Vernier activity “Ocean Floor Mapping.” Using plastic utility tarps, they create a simulated lake in their classroom.
Continue reading about Creating a Topographic Map with Motion Detectors…
Vernier recently attended the GLOBE annual conference in San Antonio, TX, where we sponsored a field trip to Natural Bridge Caverns, a limestone cave. Sixty teachers made their way through the wet, drippy tour of the caverns and collected relative humidity, temperature, and barometric pressure data along the way.
A customer called recently looking for ideas on aerodynamic drag experiments. This inspired us to do a little research with toy cars on the roof of a car.
Bernard Zalewski from Marianist Province USA sent us some information on how he uses our Go!Temp to do experiments on thermal conductivity. He uses several different metals.
An interesting and challenging problem for AP Chemistry students is the investigation of a mixture. We have a great chemistry experiment available in which the student analyzes a mixture of hydrochloric acid and phosphoric acid. This lab presents the student with the task of conducting a seemingly routine acid-base titration.
An osmosis investigation has been developed by Mike Collins, one of our staff biology teachers, that helps students understand this essential concept of cell homeostasis.
Robert Morse wrote an excellent and detailed article titled, “Electrostatics with Computer-Interfaced Charge Sensors”. Download the article and discover how to use this sensor to measure charge polarity, charging by induction and more.
Vernier consultant and ham radio enthusiast Lew Malchick had to troubleshoot a problem with one of his radios. Lew checked the circuit using a traditional voltmeter, but nothing showed up. Then Lew hooked up the Vernier Differential Voltage Probe and the problem became apparent.
Joan Pease, AP Chemistry teacher at Hall High School, West
Hartford, CT, has her students participate in an annual Chemistry
Fair. Students design a unique experiment testing a topic that was
studied during the year.
Last year, two of her students, David Leer and Douglas Dell’Accio,
designed a project that used the Vernier Conductivity Probe to
investigate the Belousov-Zhabotinsky Oscillating Reaction.
Nick La Rosa, a Level 2 boxing coach from Victoria, Australia, found he could use Vernier data-collection technology to improve the performance of his boxers. Nick has developed various tests to help him evaluate fitness levels of the boxers, as well as effectiveness of the training program.
Nüsret Hisim (Walkersville HS, Walkersville, MD) was in the same situation as many other customers: He long ago updated his interfaces to newer LabPros or CBL 2s. Here are some creative ways he makes use of those older, original CBLs.
One of the experiments in our physics lab manuals has students determine the speed of sound in air by creating a short sound in a column of air, such as a hollow tube. A Vernier Microphone is used to pick up the initial sound and the echo of the sound from the end of the tube.
Information for our international customers »
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