Comment's on other's projects

Comment for Tanya B.
http://tbee-tanya.blogspot.com/2011/12/ipt-multimedia-project.html?showComment=1323756636784#c7713779419559923924
Comment for Austin G
http://austingillesp.blogspot.com/2011/12/video-presentation-for-flame-tests.html?showComment=1323757201941#c5396251644195081645
Comment for Zephne Larsen/Vaterlaus
http://coolphysicsteacher.blogspot.com/2011/12/instructional-video.html?showComment=1323757627991#c1676008312800607429
Comment for Shane R.
http://comdotpotblogs.blogspot.com/2011/11/i-was-hoping-to-get-much-further-on.html?showComment=1323758070568#c380013469695907272
Comment for Abigail S.
http://abbiestechadventures.blogspot.com/2011/12/video.html?showComment=1323758640022#c3389902533076944374

Internet Safety

For the Internet Safety assingment, I spent time reading over a couple of talks that were given and looking at various articles in the Diigo group.
The first article that I read was Elder Bednar's Things as they really are. I was impressed again by the importance that our bodies hold for us. It is vital that we treat them like the vital tool that they are. It is important that we allow ourselves the opportunity to experience life for what it is and not just satisfy ourselves with a virtual simulation. I can see how it is part of Satan's plan to minimize the value of our bodies by not using them to their full potential. I am saddened by the people that allow their lives to be consumed by online gaming and various other items.
http://lds.org/library/display/0,4945,538-1-4830-1,00.html
The next article that I read was entitled Just a Game. This article gave me greater insight into items that could be facing my future students. I imagine that I will have students that are involved in these types of games. That means that I need to pay attention and be able to potentially reach out to help such individuals. This article also provided me the opportunity to do some self reflection given that I enjoy a small amount of gaming. I am pleased to note that with the questions at the end of the article, I don't have a gaming problem. This article has further caused me to contemplate why I haven't taken my gaming online(I just have a console). The reason is that I don't want to tempt myself as I could potentially get addicted. As is, I can play a game and then not touch my console for weeks.
http://lds.org/ensign/2009/08/just-a-game?lang=eng
The next article that I read had to do with setting up a secure password. After reading this article, I have decided to implement some changes with my passwords. Personally, I feel that I have a strong password, but I have been using it for a while, so I just created a new password and changed it on my major accounts. My plan is to change passwords monthly. This way it makes it harder to crack. I can also see value in setting up this practice as I might need to be careful of students learning my password. It would be potentially harmful if they got access to the grades or other confidential information on a Teacher's account.

http://www.diigo.com/bookmark/http%3A%2F%2Fgmailblog.blogspot.com%2F2009%2F10%2Fchoosing-smart-password.html?gname=teaching-with-technology
I also read another article that enlightened me about the dangers of hackers trying to figure out my password. This reinforced the idea of making a complex password with up and lower case. I liked the idea of coming up with a phrase that can be broken down into symbols.
http://www.diigo.com/bookmark/http%3A%2F%2Fwww.baekdal.com%2Ftips%2Fpassword-security-usability?gname=teaching-with-technology

For the second part of the activity, I talked with my mom who is in her late 50's. One of the major things that I talked to her about was the security of her password. I think like me, she has a good password, but has been using it for a long time and thus could use to come up with a new one to use. We also spent time talking about the messages shared by Elder Bednar in making sure that our pursuits are worthwhile in reality.

Video Project

Here is my video project. For my project, I took a video that explores the concepts of static charge. I would use this video to either introduce the concepts to the students or use it as a follow up activity for students to do at home. One of the advantages of using the video format is that it allows me to do close up of the tape pieces which would be very hard to do in a classroom setting. 

Storyboard

Here is the storyboard for my video project. It is an example of a student project using charges.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1o3PCN0fdpqZ_gMjCYM856T4I-c6ECDlO6ygUAAP-vy8/edit?hl=en_US

Logger Pro Blog Questions post 3

As you can tell, I decided to break up my posts in order to keep them somewhat manageable. In this post, I will answer the questions that have been posed.

• What did you learn about probes and sensors?
• I have learned that there is a great deal that can learned by using probes and sensors. It blows my mind the amount of sensors that are available all the way from force sensors, optical sensors, motion detectors, thermal probes and electrical to name a few. I am just starting to gain lean of the options. I also have learned that they extremely accurate and very user friendly. For example the force plate makes the elevator lab much simpler. It records the data in a very easy to view format whereas if you had to use a regular scale, you have to be quick to catch the values because of the fluctuations that can occur. 
• What did you learn about Logger Pro? How would you use this technology in the classroom?
• Logger Pro is a very powerful tool. It is extremely useful in analyzing data. I think that curve fit feature is very useful. As I worked with my teacher in my practicum class, we have used Logger Pro a few times to have students take data and find the curve fit. By doing this, students are able to determine how something is related to another item. This is an activity that I would use frequently in my classroom. 
• Which probes and sensors did you feel would be most valuable to you? Why?
• Simply put, all of them! It depends on what I am trying to teach that day, but all of the sensors/probes have very valuable uses. One of the first things that I want in my classroom would be a set of LabQuest's and computers with LoggerPro. This allows me to give the students experiments and have them work with the data to discover things on their own. It is amazing the things that they can discover when given an inquiry based lab and equipment to discover with. 

Logger Pro Experiments post 2

This post is dedicated to some of the experiments that can be run using LoggerPro along with the sensors that come with it. To collect this data, I used a portable LabQuest with different sensors.
Experiment 1 - Elevator
Have you ever experienced a second of weightlessness while riding an elevator. Using a force plate, one measure acceleration that one experiences while in an elevator. In order to do this lab, students will get on an elevator. One student will stand on the force plate and then let the LabQuest record the data throughout the journey.

Data from elevator trip

The data here is from riding the elevator in the Eyring Science Center elevator from the first floor up to the fourth floor and back again. In order to find the accelerations that are taking place in the elevator, students would need to identify different items on the graph. Using the statistics tool, students can select a portion of the graph where there is no change in the force to find out what the weight of the person standing on the scale is. Using that value, you can find that persons mass by dividing that person's weight by gravity(9.8 meters per second squared). Next step is to find the maximum value of the force while going up. LoggerPro tells us that the maximum value is 1150N. Take the difference and divide it by the mass of the person and you have the acceleration of the elevator.
Experiment 2 - Charging a Capacitor

Potential difference and Current Measured in a Capacitor during the charging Phase.

A capacitor is an electrical component that stores electrical charge. In order to complete this lab, one uses a LabQuest with a current sensor and voltage probe. The current sensor is set up to measure the current flowing through one of the wires. Since the circuit that I set up was a circuit that had all of its components in series, the current will be the same throughout. The voltage probes were set up to measure across the capacitor. Upon obtaining a graph such as this, it would allow a great opportunity to examine what occurred in the circuit as time passed. 

First we shall examine the voltage. Initially the voltage across the capacitor is zero because it hasn't stored any charge. As the capacitor charges, it begins to equal the voltage output of the battery. Eventually the capacitor is fully charged and matches the battery in terms of voltage. 

Now this leads us to examine what is happening with the current in the circuit. Initially the circuit flows freely, but as the capacitor charges, the voltage drop becomes less and less. Thus the current becomes smaller until it reaches a point in which it is nearly nonexistent. An illustration of this phenomenon will be shown by a light bulb that decreases in brightness over time.

Experiment 3 - Push-up 

Another item that can be done is measuring the force that exerted during a pushup. This is an example of measuring an everyday phenomenon. 

Push-up measured using a force sensor

It is interesting to note that initially, there is a drop in force when a person drops down in their push-up and then there is a large amount of force required to raise up again. This would be a simple lab and allow students to get an idea of how they can exert a force on something.

Logger Pro Tutorials post 1

I have now completed the LoggerPro Tutorials(All 12 of them). I wanted to learn LoggerPro because I have been finding out that it is an extremely useful technology. The teacher that I am doing my practicum with uses Logger Pro a lot and I wanted to learn more about it myself.
Things that I have learned through the tutorials

• When wanting to edit a box, make sure to uncheck the box allowing editing in the column details. I learned this after not being successful for around 5 minutes. 
• I have a lot of control on the aesthetics of LoggerPro and can customize it my style. 
• I like the option of using autoarrange. It is a neat tool that will take the items on the screen and organize them in a neat fashion. Yes, I am capable of doing it myself, but it's cool that the program has that feature.
• I like the ability of changing the values on the axis by clicking on the graph and then on the range.
• One of my favorite features is the examine button because it allows one to easily observe the different values on the graph. 
• Likewise, the statistics feature is quite powerful. It can give a lot of meaning to your data.
• I was pleasantly surprised when I learned that I could make columns that get values by doing a function of another column. This could be used to find a rate or other items. 
• Logger Pro is also really powerful when it comes to doing curve fits and linear fits. 
• Another feature that is really fun to play with is the video analysis tool. I could use this tool to analyze the motion of an object in motion during a sporting event such as the flight of a baseball of the bat. 

ScreenShot of the Video Analysis of a basketball toss with curve fits on the graphs.