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. 

Stellarium Project

• What did you learn about Stellarium or Celestia?
• I learned that Stellarium can be used in a very similar manner as one would used a planetarium. I really like how you can adjust the sky for different locations and change the dates. I also like how you can do a time lapse of the sky.

• 

  Section of the Night sky on day that I was born. Includes a few of my favorites in Draco and Ursa Major and Ursa Minor,

  
  
• What instructional problems could you use this technology for?
• I use Stellarium to complement a unit on astronomy. I would use Stellarium to teach about different constellations and navigation in the night sky. I would also take time to point out some of the stars that are the brightest and explain why they are so bright. 
• What are 2-3 activities you could use this technology for in your own teaching? List the instructional standards and a detailed explanation of how you would conduct the activity (e.g. the order of events that you or your students would do to be able to accomplish the learning objective)



A view of tonights sky that includes my favorite winter constellation, Orion



A view of the far off planet of Jupiter

• One item that I would use this technology for would be to teach students navigation using the night sky. One of the common misconceptions that I would seek to correct is that the constellations change given the season. I would give my students time to explore the nighttime sky using Stellarium with a list of constellations to learn and be able to distinguish. I would break the constellations up using the seasons. Then I would test my students by bringing up the night time sky and pointing out a constellation for them to identify.
• Another item that I would teach my students would be the motion among the night sky.  I would want them to be able to observe the movements of the planets. I want for my students to understand that the word planet actually means wanderer. This is because planets have an irregular motion in the nighttime sky. To teach my students about this, I would have my students plot a planets location at the same time each night and form a plot of the planets position and discuss the meaning of it.