Computerized Data Collection

My physics classroom has an impressive collection of digital data collection devices that can be connected to a laptop and used to measure all sorts of things - everything from linear and centripetal acceleration to electric field strength to light intensity to gas pressure.  I have occasionally busted them out, along with the accompanying cookie cutter lab from the workbook, and let me students have at it.  I can't say I was really sold on the things.

That changed after I attended an exceptional AP Institute this week, where our consultant demonstrated a number of exceptional activities that students could do with this stuff.  He was creating live PV diagrams of gases, generating beautiful acceleration graphs, doing all of the things that seemed to be so difficult for my students to execute in the classroom.

The difference, I realized, is that he wasn't caught up in the nuts and bolts of the procedures; he had a basic fluency for how to use the software, which empowered him to craft more meaningful activities without search for random menu options, data collection buttons and embedded spreadsheets.

I think that with appropriately sequenced training, I can have my students doing the same things, and it will be extremely beneficial for their physics learning.  There's a storied history of physics learning built on meter sticks and stopwatches.  You can do a lot with analogue technology.  But with these gadgets, students can come close to really experience a huge array of physical phenomena in a quantitative way; if you're a constructivist in your pedagogy, that's a REALLY big deal.

Let me know if your students can do this with a stopwatch and meter stick:

If you're interested in see what other possibilities are out there, check out some of the other toys Vernier has to offer.  I've had great experiences with their products thus far.