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Self-Driving Vehicles E-book Updated for mBlock 5
We recently revised our Coding with mBot: Self-Driving Vehicles e-book to support mBlock™ 5 on Chromebooks™ and computers (Windows® and macOS®). In the nine coding activities, students are challenged to recreate many of the tasks performed by vehicles in the real world: avoiding obstacles, driving within the lines, autonomous parking, and more. Working programs for all of the challenges are provided.
Vernier Sponsors the 2020 KidWind Challenge
We believe in strengthening students’ critical thinking skills by encouraging them to create solutions to real-world problems. That’s one reason we are a sponsor of the 2020 KidWind Challenge, hosted by the KidWind Project. In addition, a portion of all sales of KidWind products supports the KidWind Challenges held throughout the United States.
The challenges consist of dozens of local and regional competitions across the country during which teams of students test the energy output of wind turbines they design and build.
Using an Inquiry-Based Approach to Teach Lab Safety
It is imperative that students are taught about lab safety at the beginning of each school year. When it comes to safety, I want to go beyond just guidance and provide something that really sticks with students.
In addition to going over the important guidelines and procedures they need to follow, I created an inquiry-based investigation to help my 10th and 11th grade chemistry students really understand the importance of accident prevention and safe experimentation. This lab also teaches about experimental design and the scientific method, which is a good beginning-of-the-year refresher.
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Investigate Plant Pigments and Olive Oil
Two of our most popular spectroscopy experiments can now be done with Vernier Spectral Analysis® and are now available for free. Experiment 13, “The Visible Spectra of Plant Pigments” and Experiment 14, “Determination of Chlorophyll in Olive Oil”, from Advanced Biology with Vernier, now include Spectral Analysis experiment instructions and are available as free downloads.
Spectral Analysis, our free, spectroscopy app, works on Windows®, macOS, Chromebook™, iOS®, and Android™ devices. You can use this app while collecting data with our SpectroVis® Plus Spectrophotometer and Go Direct® SpectroVis Plus Spectrophotometer.
Vernier in the Journals (Fall 2019)
Effective and Inexpensive HPLC Analogue for First-Year Students: Buret Chromatography of Food Dyes in Drinks
Brian Stankus, Rosemary White, and Binyomin Abrams (Boston University, Massachusetts);
J. Chem. Educ., 96, 2019, pp 739−744.
The authors describe how to demonstrate HPLC using a chromatography column constructed from a buret and silica gel. A sample of grape drink mix is separated. A Vernier spectrophotometer is an option when measuring the components of the mixture by spectrophotometry.
Escape the Lab: An Interactive Escape-Room Game as a Laboratory Experiment
Matthew J. Vergne, Joshua D. Simmons, and Ryan S. Bowen (Lipscomb University, Tennessee);
J. Chem. Educ., 96, 2019, pp 985−991.
Students run through a variety of laboratory techniques to solve puzzles and identify an unknown compound in order to escape from the laboratory. A Vernier UV-VIS Spectrophotometer (VSP-UV) is used in this activity.
Sound Propagation, Reflection, and Its Relevance to Ultrasound Imaging
Thomas Allen (Portland State University, Oregon), Alex Chally (Portland State University, Oregon), Bradley Moser (University of New England, Maine), and Ralf Widenhorn (Portland State University, Oregon);
The Physics Teacher, 57, March, 2019, page 134.
This activity uses a Vernier Microphone and LabQuest 2 to study sound reflections in a tube that is closed on one end. The new idea is that one or more partially reflecting surfaces are included in the pipe, making the reflection more complex and modeling a medical ultrasound.
What a Metal Pipe Can Teach You About Magnetism
Maarij Syed, and N. Nuessle (Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, Illinois);
The Physics Teacher, 57, May, 2019, page 330.
This series of experiments uses our Rotary Motion Sensor with a Vernier interface to study the motion of an Atwood machine with one side consisting of a magnet moving inside a metal tube. The eddy current damping of the motion is studied.
Physical Computing with Raspberry Pi and Go Direct Sensors
Over the last few months, we have been testing the Vernier Python module for Go Direct® sensors on Raspberry Pi. Raspberry Pi is an affordable, fully functioning computer that was developed and built to help encourage the understanding, learning, and continued study of computing in schools.
When given Go Direct sensors and Python as tools, students can integrate their coding skills with data-collection projects to visualize data or incorporate sensor data with a Raspberry Pi.
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Why Use Two Probes When You Only Need One?
Vernier helps you keep experiments simple. Using our multi-channel Go Direct® Optical Dissolved Oxygen Probe, students can simultaneously measure dissolved oxygen concentration (mg/L), percent saturation (%), and water temperature. Students normally need to use both a dissolved oxygen probe and a temperature probe to learn how the dissolved oxygen content of water depends on the water temperature. This is an important ecological concept, as some organisms, such as salmon, require high concentrations of dissolved oxygen in their water. Your students no longer need an additional probe to measure temperature when they use a Go Direct Optical Dissolved Oxygen Probe.
We have updated Experiment 19, “Dissolved Oxygen in Water,” from Biology with Vernier, to include instructions for collecting data more efficiently using this probe.
Experiments Available through Google Workbench
At Vernier, we recognize that educators partner with dependable providers that they have come to know and love. We strive to do the same, which is why we work closely with providers like Google Workbench.
Track progress, access lessons, and keep a living record of work for students through Google Workbench. Free student-ready experiments from Vernier that explore chemistry, biology, physiology, and physics are available through Google Workbench.
Celebrating Dave Vernier’s 50 Years in Education
This fall will mark Dave Vernier’s 50th year in education. From starting his career as a physics teacher, first at an inner-city school in Cleveland and later in Oregon, to ultimately co-founding Vernier Software & Technology, science education and technology have always been passions for Dave.
Over the past 38 years, Vernier Software & Technology has supported thousands of science educators through the use of reliable hands-on technology. We asked Dave about science education and the changes he’s seen in edtech over his years in the business.
Q: 50 years is a long time in education. During that time, how did the use of technology in schools get started? How has it changed and evolved?
A: When I started teaching, there was not very much of what you would call “technology” being used. Thankfully, there is a lot more and better-quality equipment now.
During my teaching, I loved to do experiments, and the students did a good job taking data, but then they had to graph the data by hand on paper. This often took them a long time to complete. By the time they had the graph completed, they saw very little connection between the graph and the experiment they had done 15 minutes earlier. It was just “busy work” to them. Having a computer graph the data as they are taken makes all the difference in having students understand graphs.
The computer speeds up every aspect of the experimental process—the data collection, the graphing, the data analysis, and even the write-up. Now, students can do an experiment and repeat it with varying conditions to look for patterns, as well as even design their own experiments.
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Vernier Wins Three ISTE Best of Show Awards
Vernier won three Tech & Learning ISTE 2019 Best of Show Awards last month at the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) 2019 Conference & Expo in Philadelphia, PA! The Coding with mBot: Life Hacks e-book, the Exploring Motion and Force with Go Direct® Sensor Cart e-book, and the Wind Energy Explorations and Solar Energy Explorations e-books were chosen by a panel of tech-savvy educators based on their quality and effectiveness, ease of use, cost, and creative use of technology.
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