Technology in the Science Classroom

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Permalink Reply by Dennis Pack on July 17, 2013 at 3:07pm

One activity I have had success with is having students document a chicken wing dissection using their netbooks. As the students progress through the dissection, they use the webcam to photograph the various parts of the wing (ligaments, tendons, cartilage, etc) and then add arrows, labels, and annotations. When finished, they put all their information together into a presentation and submit it for assessment.
I have also used this method for measuring the amount of energy in a peanut along with data logging equipment from Vernier and PASCO. It worked very well, involving a lot of collaboration and problem solving. Every chance I get, I try to incorporate data logging into my practical lessons. The graphing capabilities of the software are especially useful and, contrary to some beliefs, the students spend large amounts of time manipulating the graph structure to create the most appropriate/useful graphs. I am sure the student's graphing capabilities are much enhanced and they have a much deeper understanding of what a graph is and means.