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Hurricane Rita Barometric Pressure Data
Brian Lamore is a physics teacher at the Chinquapin School in Highlands, Texas. While preparing to evacuate his school for Hurricane Rita, Brian recognized a unique opportunity to collect some data. Brian set up a LabPro with a Barometer to collect the changes in atmospheric pressure as the powerful storm went by. Fortunately, Brian made it through the storm safely and captured some great data.
Continue reading about Hurricane Rita Barometric Pressure Data…
The Chemistry of Bathtub Tints
Jack Randall, one of our resident chemistry gurus, just can’t leave things alone. Jack has taken a cute bath product called Bathtub Tints (made by Crayola(R)) and turned it into an opportunity to conduct chemistry experiments. As Jack puts it, “It may not be bath time, but it’s time to do some investigations with these little bundles of fun.” You might like to try some of these activities with your students.
The Volume of a Person
Eric Koser and his 9th grade physical science students at Mankato West High School in Mankato, Minnesota had spent lots of time doing experiments with overflow cans exploring mass, volume and density. They also spent some time considering what the density of a person might be and decided to measure it. Fortunately, one of Eric’s colleagues is married to a welder and she had her husband build a human-sized overflow can. Eric used Force Plates to measure the density of a person.
Experimenting with a Thermocouple
Thermocouples are one of the most common temperature sensors. They can be used to measure temperatures between -200 and 1400 degrees Celsius. If you have never had the opportunity to do an experiment using a Vernier Thermocouple, here are three activities to try: Flame Mapping, Bending Glass, and Heating Curve for Ethanol. This might be just what you need to heat things up this fall.
Flying with Vernier
Brian Czapor and some of his fellow students from the University of Akron participated in the SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers) Aero Design® Competition. In order to improve their design, they used the Vernier LabPro and our 3-Axis Accelerometer to give them flight data.
What Causes the Seasons?
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. Continue reading about “What Causes the Seasons?”
GIS Mapping Enhances Salinity Study
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.
Continue reading about “GIS Mapping Enhances Salinity Study…”