Storing snow in case next year we don't have enough snow to do the Olympics

I have a odd liking for new opportunities to investigate temperatures using data logging equipment. This story, about stockpiling this years snow for the 2014 Winter Olympics, caught my attention. Such a bold idea! I would be intrigued to read the engineer's justification for what's been here.

Watch video: 

BBC News - Sochi stores snow ahead of 2014 Winter Olympics

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-23831148

MoLab - data logger for indoor or outdoor use

If anyone wanted their data logger to be small, this unit from CMA in Amsterdam fits that description. You could say it's as portable as a compact digital camera. Its job is to record data from four sensors at once and be controlled by a colour touch screen. MoLab can be used as a standalone unit in the field or in the classroom. Alternatively you can connect it to a PC computer using a micro-USB cable. MoLab contains "Coach", which is software that lets you record data as well as manipulate it. As recorded elsewhere, this is a fabulously capable software tool.

Although hardly known in the UK, CMA (a commercial spinoff of a University of Amsterdam project) have developed sensors and software since the earliest days of technology in teaching. I've had a quick test drive with the unit and it's a credit to its maker.

Below: a well thought-out package. Note the 'cradle' for safe use; the non-captive leads; an excellent temperature probe; USB charger.


Sensors- digital - auto-recognised - pre-calibrated

3-Axis Acceleration sensor (-8 ..+8g) (Art. Nr. ML29s) Barometer/Altimeter sensor (330.. 1100 kPa) (Art. Nr. ML36s) Current Sensor (-3 .. 3 A) (Art. Nr. ML20f) Current Sensor (-12.5 .. 12.5 mA) (Art. Nr. ML23f) Force Sensor (-80..+80 N) (Art. Nr. ML32f) Gas Pressure Sensor (-100.. 300 kPa) (Art. Nr. ML39m) Light Sensor (0.. 65535 lx) (Art. Nr. ML14s) Magnetic Field Sensor (1000.. 3000 G) (Art. Nr. ML51m) Motion Detector (0.15 .. 6 m) (Art. Nr. ML26m) pH-sensor (0 .. 14) (Art. Nr. ML42m) Humidity Sensor (0.. 100%) (Art. Nr. ML48m) Temperature Sensor (-40.. 125°C) (Art. Nr. ML11s) Temperature Sensor (-200.. 1200°C) (Art. Nr. ML45m) Voltage sensor (-15..15V) - Differential (Art. Nr. ML17f)

Planet Science - Teachers Newsletter

Same logo but not the same blast since Planet Science was privatised. One year on I'm still reading and hoping for better.

You can sign-up for a regular dose of science news from Planet Science 

Here's the direct link

http://www.planet-science.com/categories/parentsteachers/mailing-list/subscribe-parent-teacher.aspx

Data logging Photo Albums - new albums and old photos

If you've used data loggers since the 1990's you might be entertained by my new photo albums covering topics such as 

• Data logging Experiments 
• Data logging Equipment
• Places, labs and logistics for data logging in school.

You might find a photo of you there and ask me to remove it and of course I will!

Go here: http://wordpress.rogerfrost.com

Software update for EasySense VISION datalogger from Data Harvest

We've news of a firmware update for the VISION datalogger (review below). My guess is that if you've used the VISION you'll not notice, but will enjoy the improvements:

• If you connect a monitor or projector the VISION now detects it and uses it for display. 
• An oscilloscope feature now works to 200uS
• VISION can print in colour to PCL printers
• When connected to a PC, the VISION internal memory now appears as a USB disc drive
• A new user interface with an on-screen keyboard that automatically appears when required

Data Harvest VISION used with a projector

EasySense VISION datalogger from Data Harvest

The idea of an all-in-one datalogger makes measuring and data analysis in science experiments a whole lot simpler. Data Harvest's EasySense VISION competes with devices from manufacturers such as Vernier; PASCO and LogIT. First impressions are that Data Harvest's implementation of the all-in-one idea is well thought through and should be in the shortlist.

EasySense VISION is a new unit for measuring with sensors from Data Harvest. Its killer features are: a touch-operated colour screen; familiar built-in software and an extremely valuable socket that lets you show readings being taken using a projector and mouse.You don't even need a PC to use sensors in a science lab because now that capability is built into the VISION itself. The result is that it's affordable for numerous groups in a class to monitor readings from experiments. Nevertheless, if you do have a PC you can use it to take readings from VISION as well as put collected data into a lab report.
Those who already have similar systems can be reassured that this doesn't necessarily mean that their system is now obsolete. VISION can replace older Data Harvest loggers that use the same sensors.  Thus you don't have to start over and buy all new kit. You could gain benefit from having just one VISION unit. The sensors are cleverly unusual in their having a chip which stores calibration data to tell VISION how to scale the readings that it collects.
The built-in software will immediately be familiar to users of Data Harvest systems so no relearning is needed. It is easy enough to dive into and play. When VISION is plugged into a projector and used with a mouse, there's little difference to notice between what you see here and seeing similar on a PC. Something to check for yourself is how well you can use this same software on a tiny touch screen. I've not found Windows style-programs particularly 'finger-friendly' or suited to the situation. But then, if clumsy, it is perfectly familiar. You can get a full copy of the software for free from www.data-harvest.co.uk). A new version of the internal software provides ease of use changes (version 1.2 May 2010).

Blackcat Science Activity Builder

Press release from BLI Education:

This third Blackcat Science Activity Builder title lets you create activities for science. Using the templates you can enter your own content and make on-screen activities. The templates include pairs, crossword, lotto, labels; question / answer, Venn and Carroll diagrams. tables and ordering for science topics such as electricity, forces, and light. You can save materials in HTML, .exe or SCORM 1.2. Price £199.95

Veho handheld microscope

Image from BLI Education:
VMS 001 is a compact handheld microscope, 10cm tall with a 7cm base. Its 1.3 megapixel lens can point in any direction with up to 200x magnication. Four LEDs around the lens illuminate the object beneath. An image displays in the software window on the PC. The microscope displays large or strangely shaped objects that a traditional microscope fails to accomodate. Also available is a VMS 004 with 400x magnification. Works on: Windows 98; Windows 2000; Windows XP; Windows Vista. Prices VMS 001 - Single user - £59 ;VMS 004 - single user - £69

Inspire Data 1.5

link to video

My first review of Inspiredata, some years before now, I discovered a tool which made data interesting. I felt short-changed on tools for handling science data (as opposed to everything else). It was easy to be enthralled by clever transitions between one type of graph and another even when the transition provided no new information. What's lovely is that Inspiredata continues to improve. There's a tool to gather data through an online survey; lots of types of plot  (Venn, stack, bar, pie and what's called an axis plot); lots of ready made subject-specific databases; lesson plans, classroom projects, handouts, database templates and Inspuiredata can now display line of best fit.

SPARK Science Learning System

The technology for teaching science provides electronic sensors that can monitor sound, speed, temperature and anything a school curriculum wishes to measure. The sensors usually plug into a box that will USB into a computer. Software on a PC shows measurements on the screen, puts them on graphs or calculates say, a rate of cooling. This (my) website is one of several that tell how valuable this is for education.
The hardware trend of late is to combine the sensor box and computer to give a remarkably improved system. The SPARK Science Learning System from PASCO (about £305) is a portable and bench unit that takes a couple of sensors and a couple of presses to start measuring immediately. This dedicated unit with built-in software ensures success and soon raised a smile because for once I could focus on whether a temperature probe was in the right place and whether some insulated cups were set up correctly. Too often before one could be concerned if anything was working, but with fewer connections to make and fewer chargers to clutter you see major benefits. While this is not at all passé, future generations of students will come to expect nothing less than a system which is smooth and convenient. And if you have used generations of devices that put their software in volatile memory or have you navigate Windows menus with a toothpick fergoodnesssake, this is not passé.

The SPARK screen is large so the virtual buttons on its touch screen suit fingers instead of just fingernails. You can select part of a graph on screen and do more analysis, such as calculate averages or lines of best fit, than many schools ever do. When you plug in a sensor you can display its readings as a line; number or meter display. And then there is a neat way to preset many options and retrieve them. You do this by ‘building’ so-called experiment workbooks which keep your settings in files on the unit. While this isn’t a new concept, the review box had a stack of ‘multimedia’ workbooks for each subject. I soon found experiments such as ‘heat of reaction’ and ‘acceleration’. The experiment workbooks had been made with the PC version of the very same software. This version lets you incorporate written pictures; instructions; questions and quizzes. You can also save a PowerPoint and so quickly assemble a whole tutorial. You really can have a whole curriculum’s worth in there.

If there is a niggle it is that the software seems like a first generation idea. For example it could simply show you readings without having to choose any parameters – but this is a point I’d argue for and others would say it’s good to give you control.

Even at this early stage, a general conclusion is that having a dedicated unit for measuring is quite the direction to be heading in. And when you can run the same software in the SPARK system as on your Mac or Windows PC and now the iPod, it matters less whether every computer you use has a start menu button. It is far, far on task to assess a new system on how reliably it lets you achieve your science objectives. Since a key one of those objectives is learning to investigate science well, having a system dedicated to the purpose strikes me as being the way to go.

To read more at the makers site, click the title. In the UK visit http://www.pascophysics.co.uk/

Roger Frost's organic chemistry multimedia

a multimedia CD and online compendium with animation, models and interactives - www.organic.rogerfrost.com

for AQA, Edexcel, Salters, WJEC, OCR, IGCE, IB, International Baccalaureate, SQA, Leavers Certificate, CBSE, Singapore O level and A level, AS, A2 Chemistry

Video and Data analysis tool - Coach 6 Studio

Coach 6 Studio provides a learning environment where you or students can work with models or create models of your own. It cuts through complex maths to do with changes over time to give students ideas and problems to solve. If ever you feel that there should be more to do with the data we collect Coach 6 Studio opens the door to it. In the UK we’ve put a considerable amount of effort into replacing £1 thermometers with £1000 systems that on the surface do the same thing. This program shows how we can use ICT to get value.

You can start with imported lists of numbers, a video clip, a picture or the countless examples provided. There are tools to cut and resize media and even one to correct distortion of images captured at an angle. You can go through a sports video, frame by frame, and plot the path of a ball or athlete. What you can then do is make a model to fit the data and play it through beside the video. The depth and facilities available is the meat of physics and very powerful indeed.

I first saw Coach in action some twenty years ago. I watched it demonstrated, and heard about the way students could handle data captured from pendulums swinging and people breathing. It was spell bounding and has had me hooked on data logging for as long. What especially impressed were classroom activities where students would derive data from them. The teacher had structured them so as to eke out as much as one could. Graphs were not presented as done but as paths to learning: do this and comment; differentiate that and say what you find.

So many years on, Coach has today evolved into a comprehensive data handling ‘studio’. Spreadsheets like Excel aren't up to this. Coach embraces video and combines it with captured data and modelling. As well as import data you've collected with your own sensor system, Coach can actually capture data from CMA and Texas Instruments Interfaces. If you’re looking for a set of real scientist’s tools to analyse data and you enjoy packages so much of what people want to do is built-in than Coach 6 Studio beckons. A trainee physics teacher would go far with this - and knowing how to 'eke' understanding out of raw data would be part of every science curriculum.

Published by CMA Foundation – AMSTEL Institute, University of Amsterdam, http://www.cma.science.uva.nl/english/index.html

Firefox versus Internet Explorer - IE View Lite

It's easy to become a fan of Firefox. It's the alternative browser to Internet Explorer. It is swift, it loads Acrobat files without fuss, it runs Flash (swf) all of which are now troublesome with Internet Explorer version 7.
For schools Firefox offers security bonuses which some net managers are looking at with interest. They are thinking of switching the school from Internet Explorer. This might have caused us a headache: I'd released my multimedia compendium 'organic chemistry' and IE was essential to run it. Preferring to use FF, the following discovery was just what was needed:
IE View Lite is an extension to Firefox which works round the fact that FF can't run some websites. It lets you tell Firefox to open certain sites in Internet Explorer. It installs in a minute and takes a minute to be told which sites it should pass to Internet Explorer to handle. For network managers this may be just the trick needed to make a safe switch to Firefox.

GCSE Biology A - news release from JSH

GCSE Biology A from JSH is CD-ROM with presentations, animations and interactivity for the interactive whiteboard. The title covers the biology aspect of the new specifications for AQA, OCR, WJEC and Edexcel. Free animations and interactive exercises available at: www.jsheducation.com/KS4BiologyExamples.html (click title above)

These sample resoures are also available on a free CD-ROM for schools in the United Kingdom.

LogIT - black box datalogger

Data logging technology needs to be astoundingly simple to find an easy place in a practical lesson. When there's pouring and heating going on, the LogIT Black box datalogger is a remarkable piece of technology that fits. There are no buttons to press, no drivers to install and no power brick to connect, just a USB cable and up to three sensors and then you are working. It's happy with existing LogIT sensors that I've had since the dawn of the National Curriculum. Frankly there is little to say: it lets you measure with speed and can handle the trickier classroom tasks to do with magnetic induction or the flicker frequency of a fluorescent lamp. The LogIT Black Box comes with a booklet of useful, clever and activities to try like showing the insulating property of carbon dioxide gas. [link above]

Chemistry students get a taste of its application - also caught working on camera

Filmed report of a booster day for chemistry when over 160 A level chemistry students descended on Leicester University. And how good they were!
I think everyone could see how important chemistry is - and what a great idea this kind of event is. As well as the Science Centre East Midlands, supporting here were the education folk from Nottingham Trent University. If you've no contact to follow, the folks at the local Science Learning Centre ought to know how to make this happen.


The RSC (Royal Society of Chemistry) link above takes you to interviews and gives a fair flavour of the day. Three minutes in I'm seen waving arms as I talk about multimedia and chemistry teaching. People ought to remind me that a big camera in the corner was filming this - or how would I know! Anyway, it was an event to maybe replicate down your way.

What have you found at Google and YouTube for science lessons?

From UK newspaper "The Guardian" September 2006:
"Faster internet speed has allowed us to show video on demand, such that Google Video has clips of lectures, shuttle launches, explosions and insane high school pranks with lots of science to creatively plunder. Hilarious or not, IT coordinators and local authorities have taken to blocking such sites for want of controlling teacher and pupil access to some of its more iffy content."

To find gems for the classroom think bizarre and then try searching for mentos; explosion; rocket launch chemistry ... be prepared for surprises (and please don't search speculatively in class - as you've no idea what antisocial stuff will crop up!) As an example, for any topic on combustion, this petrol filling station clip shows someone puffing a cigarette whilst pumping fuel.

At the moment you can download clips to your PC from google video. My technique is to download the video 'MP4 for iPod' and then use Quicktime to play the file offline. Good hunting. If you don't find anything obscure but useful, methinks you didn't think bizarre enough.

Biochemistry multimedia resources for the new GCSE/KS4

Organic Chemistry good for GCSE biology topics


The last post reminds me that we've created a handful of lovely models and animation for the new UK GCSE to support work on the special topics covering DNA and proteins. Made under the banner of 'Roger Frost's Organic Chemistry' these whiteboard materials show 3D models of DNA; how bases pair up; DNA unfolding and replication; transcription at the ribosome with tRNA; how proteins are made with amino acids; carbohydrates; active sites and enzyme activity. While the bulk of the title is mainstream chemistry, and aimed as such, this wadge of biochemistry topics deserved coverage. (www.chemistry.rogerfrost.com)

Resources for KS3

A message from biochemistry.org about a new website:

The Biochemical Society has created scibermonkey, a new free online resource for Key Stage 3 science. Mapped onto the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority's (QCA) scheme of work for KS3, scibermonkey easily searches all units and lesson objectives, directly linking you to the best science resources on the web.

Link: www.scibermonkey.org

Planet Science Newsletter - a weekly blast to your inbox - sign up

When the 'Planet Science' Weekly Newsletter set me the task to find resources for interactive whiteboards I was surprised to find even this many useful sites. They'll made good use of the white rectangle on the classroom wall (the IWB) - rather than use it as a projector screen.

On the whole, whiteboard resources are as rare as rocking horse dung. Building interactivity into a web page requires money and brains and the examples below mostly show this. People ask me for free stuff but I'd like suggest why philantropy is not always a good thing. This kind of money e.g public money (cf BBC Blast) ought to provide what other publishers show no interest in providing. When it competes with reasonably commercial offerings it damages motivation to make resources in the future. And oddly enough, I value the stuff I buy. Don't have money? Take a look at your school's IT budget.

Enjoy the links. 

Update 2010: the Planet Science editorial is moving - and the link to sign up to the new site is

http://planetscience.tinopolis.com. In case you missed it, Planet Science grew out out a campaign called 'Science Year'and added refreshing approaches and humour and kudos to being allowed to have knowledge of science. Certainly I've found it provide a better image of science than anything before or since. And it's not that Newton; Hawking and Darwin aren't cool enough to improve science's image. It's more that associating science with their characters does more harm than enthuse. PS has been a finalist in the BAFTA awards and has been the most exciting PR exercise to hit science. 

Issue 168 - Halflife
Issue 166 - Optics Bench
Issue 165 - Organic Chemistry
Issue 164 - Projectile motion - shoot the monkey
Issue 161 - Digital oscilloscope
Issue 155 - Food analysis
Issue 153 - Physics, Ripple Tanks and Waves
Issue 151 - Periodic table – Nucleus and Electrons
Issue 149 - Solar system
Issue 146 - Organs of the body
Issue 144 - A journey through the solar system
Issue 143 - Plant cell versus animal cell
Issue 142 - Terminal velocity
Issue 141 - Breeding mice
Issue 140 - Crocodile clips
Issue 139 - Distance time graphs in football
Issue 138 - Natural selection– a peppered moth simulator

Alternative Energy Experiments kit - from Data Harvest

This collection of kits offer practical illustrations of wind power, solar electricity (photovoltaic cell) and solar heating.
The wind power unit has a useful clamp and two wires from a motor on the 'mill' can be fed to a voltmeter, LED unit or motor unit. The solar panel is an 20cm square piece of metal attached to a short length of copper plumbing tube. Filled with water, a digital thermometer relays the temperature. If you've sensors you can use them to monitor voltage or temperature over time. By the time you've done that you'll have lost more time than generate electricity or heat.

Ironically the result is that you end up monitoring the weather - i.e. I'm still thinking about what I can actually learn from this. The accompanying worksheets aren't helping this - they are more to do with geography and D&T than science.

Despite words like 'robust' in the product description, most parts of the kits appear to be made from scrap - and it's quite fragile stuff too... which would be fine were this all to cost about £20. In fact it costs well over the £200 mark. Verdict: try this before you buy.

Physics Illustrator - Tablet PC - uphill climb

Intrigued by the title I was as here was some free software from Microsoft's Download Centre.
First attempt to install - "Sorry, this only works on a Tablet PC"
Second attempt to install, this time on a Tablet PC - "Sorry, you need Net Framework installed first".
There was no third attempt. Physics cannot be this hard but if you're using this software, please click below, tell us how useful it is and we'll give it the extra effort required.

Data logging via Bluetooth connections - in a word, 'avoid'

Just as data loggers got that bit more reliable, in comes the wireless connection known as Bluetooth.
While recent devices use a USB lead to connect a data logger to the PC, several manufacturers offer the extra feature of a Bluetooth wireless connection.

USB is mostly good. USB not only transfers data, it can power the data logger and this is how logging is becoming more reliable. (See for example Easy sense 'Link' (Data Harvest) for a most reliable and inexpensive way to link three sensors to a PC.)

Enter Bluetooth and the logger transfers data over a wireless link. Like a mobile phone, the logger will need power so we're back to scratch on the power issue again. What's more, Bluetooth is flakey-flakey-poor. For example, the PC and logger have to be married and this marriage have a habit of falling asunder. So we jump from real gains with USB to real risks with Bluetooth. And reliability plummets.

Bluetooth is great for connecting the whole bunch of obscure devices like phones, headsets, speakers, PDA's, GPS navigators and personal gizmos you might buy. Instead of carrying a caseful of cables, you use Bluetooth to connect them up. So you can print, access the network / Internet and send data (phone numbers, pictures, music) between them.

Bluetooth is largely about getting different manufacturer's devices to interoperate with a bit of wireless convenience thrown in.

If Bluetooth data loggers enabled a small chunk of that ability we'd be gaining something. If Bluetooth could send data back from a hot water tank, different rooms, a pond or weather station we'd be gaining something but still not exactly massively. If they took photos and fed them back that would be a gain. If different maker's equipment worked with the PC we'd gain massively. But Bluetooth data loggers aren't doing that at all. At the most they exchange data with the PC, something which a simple USB cable does best.

I'd avoid. Given the track record of data loggers, and until someone shows reliability or 'learning' gains from using Bluetooth, I'd suggest staying away.

From our 'Contact' page - Philip Harris elog (II)

From our 'Contact' page:
Dear Roger

Have just bought a Philip Harris eLog II datalogger (before I looked at your website!). I am having problems.

The A3 sheet sized quickstart guide (there is no manual yet) says you can charge the internal batteries through a connection to the USB port on the laptop PC (with the laptop USB power saving features turned off). 8 hours should be needed.

However this does not work - the batteries stay stubbornly uncharged even after 36 hours and a very hot laptop. Turning the elogII power on (there is a meagre 5% internal battery power left) during charging doesnt help either - and I have now completely pancaked the internal battery.

The Philip Harris tech support line is a study in ignorance. Can you suggest what I am doing wrong?

The elogII worked briefly on what power it DID have before I pancaked it.

Cheers



RF thinks:
That USB socket on a laptop delivers very little current. It's slightly different to a USB on a desktop where charging via USB isn't going to overdrain the battery. There's enough power in the laptop USB to allow you to read the sensors but either there's not enough to really top up the battery or more likely there's not enough to recharge the battery from flat. (It would be sensible/likely for the manufacturer to have disabled charging the logger from flat.) An alternative idea, and battery issue aside, is that the kit is not good - which is sad because there's a lot of faith in the company but their equipment is over-blown and off-target. And more sad that there's not a lot of intelligence left at Philip Harris to steer it back on course.

Data logging: experiments and equipment reviews

It's been a while but at last this web now has a section of favorite experiments as well as a guide to the various brands of data loggers.

Choosing Equipment - an annual article on what's new together with a look at the track record of each brand.

Experiment Gallery - a set of experiments

Data handling - worked examples of what to do with data you collect

Digital video

If you thought that work with digital video needed fantastic equipment or that it was for some other subject, Reading Boys secondary school sets the record straight. Teacher Mary-Clare Maunder has been trying an unusual teaching strategy - editing video to raise issues in science. Given an assortment of video interviews about homeopathy, the year nine class assembles a short film. They sift through pre-filmed interviews and add a commentary. Could homeopathy cure people? Was there any science to it? And, if it worked anyway, did that matter? The boys have a question per group to answer: they have to assemble the evidence to support a case one way or the other.Keeping costs in check, they use Pinnacle's Studio software in a regular network room. "It was an alternative way to teach 'ideas and evidence' - challenging, more interesting and very adaptable to any topic," says Maunder.Designed by Tony Sherborne at Sheffield's Centre for Science Education, video lessons offer a fresh approach. "We've aimed to make this manageable, time efficient and we now have a version using film clips on PowerPoint," says Sherborne. "It's superb to see students so engrossed." As the computers you find in school gain power, you see more schools using them to communicate via video. It signals not the end of email, handwriting or PowerPoint but the start of new, and generally less explored, ways to learn.
Take Coed-y-lan primary school in Wales, whose short film about minibeasts won a Becta digital video award.Somebody simply suggested making a film about their current topic. Deputy head Robert James had some very affordable technology: an Apple iMac, a digital microscope and a Sony camcorder. The class had followed a David Attenborough TV series, and they were ready to parallel his example. What followed was a journey through a variety of skills, techniques and pupil research. "They'd have highly creative ideas and launch into much discussion on the best ways to shoot things," says James. "There was collaborative learning all through as they assembled the clips, or used animation in one sequence. It worked in different ways for different children and showed us all a new way of working."You can view this short film at www.becta.org.uk although only a little of what you see conveys the attention to detail, the enjoyment of science inquiry or the thorough application of the group that produced it.


Reading boys School - resources
Staff: science department;
Non-timetabled hours: one plus two to three in class;
Kit:Pinnacle Studio - video-editing software and school network;
Cost: variable depending on video-editing software of choice;
Support (external): lesson designed by Tony Sherborne.

A new science laboratory

Adding computers to labs doesn't prove easy - you need space for experiments, sensors and data loggers. Add a dozen computers, and two dozen loudspeakers, and it can get messy. As every teacher has a view on labs and great tips to pass on, it's timely that the ASE and Royal Society are collecting some definitive advice on lab design. They've commissioned education specialist 3T for the job, producing case studies and a CD-rom design tool. Hampton school in London would make an exceptional case study - the technology services its needs but doesn't take over. Off the bench, thin-screen monitors keep the worktop clear; under-bench computers keep the floor clear too. Cables for sensors emerge from hidden dataloggers, while cordless mice and keyboards keep the look clean. Clever touches include a separate switched power circuit to cut the PC monitors and gain pupils' attention! While new labs cost serious money it may come as a surprise that in this design we see no extravagance. In the words of head science technician David Hughes: "It costs the same to do a lab right as it does to do it wrong."
From "The Guardian"
Pic

You've read about nanotechnology or seen the space shuttle crash. Set beside the news, school science seems centuries old. But at Garth Hill school in Bracknell, science teaching gained a contemporary edge with the help of "Upd8" from the Association for Science Education (ASE). The Upd8 team produces topical lessons based on current news and then beams out weekly emails and text messages to teachers.

Garth Hill is one of several schools trialling this nifty Planet Science and IBM-funded "alerting" service. Head of science Diane Allum Wilson was one of the first to sign up. "At the peak of the Sars epidemic, they sent an idea on how to simulate the spread of the disease across the school. We gave pupils a leaflet meaning that they 'caught' the virus. In turn they passed it on. The whole school took part through lessons, breaks and lunchtimes. The kids really did understand how infection travels." And when Michael Jackson famously dangled his baby from a window, Wilson's pupils started asking why the baby had white skin. In timely fashion, the Upd8 team produced a ready-to-roll lesson on genetics. Allum Wilson finds colleagues run easily with these ideas. "The 'here's a lesson you can do' approach worked well. Best of all, the work generated interest and excitement."

A datalogger is not just for Xmas

We come to expect computers to change often and get us to upgrade but with data loggers I wonder. The need to take readings from experiments is pretty much the same today as it was fifteen years ago. In other words the kit you had then really ought to work now. I am still looking for a good reason any firm should change the design of a temperature sensor. The reason for change that I can see is to seek something more reliable.
My day job - providing courses on data logging and the use of ICT in science - has been much enhanced by the amount of Philip Harris equipment in schools. The equipment, consisting of 'Blue Box' sensors, DL Plus interfaces, First Sense, CL100 card loggers was bought by the lorry load during the 1990's. The system was changed many times and at great cost to science dept budgets. ().
These kits have been very troublesome too - most often the problem is an iffy link between the box and the sensors - leads, battery power and serial ports each playing their part in an unreliable setup.
"Surely the technology has moved on and got better" said the last school I visited so I took along samples from various manufacturers to see if it had. Most impressive were the USA made systems from Vernier and PASCO. Each worked via the USB port - the software responding immediately to plugging and unplugging sensors. LogIT and Data Harvest systems were fairly good though you needed to get the software at the right place before it would recognise the sensor had changed. Of the two LogIT was most responsive - what spoiled it for the Data Harvest box was to complain about a lack of a driver - even though I'm sure I'd installed this beforehand.
If you're having problems with whatever you bought it is possible to continue using the existing kit reliably:
1) Get each part of the kit working before connecting up to the PC.
2) Be prepared to discard (or mark as suspect) some items.
3) If the effort required is discouraging, rest assured there is good equipment to be had.
4) Whoever you buy from, look at their track record and wonder why they've changed their system so many times.

Crystal Bonsai Tree

Dave writes:

Have you tried this? Wrap a piece of sellotape around a microscope slide, sticky side up. Use pieces of copper wire to construct the branches of a simple tree on the sellotape. Add a few drops of about 0.1M silver nitrate. Use a microscope and computer to display the crystal growth. Call it the 'fastest growing bonsai tree in the world'. (Could someone try it and send us a picture please. R)

Microsoft Word - faster formatting using styles

If you've yet to use them in earnest, Microsoft Word styles are fabulously helpful. They not only make documents consistent, they speed up the business of changing the look of a document when it's done.
To make them even more useful, add some style 'buttons' to your Word toolbar. Right click a toolbar and choose 'styles'. You ought to see this:

Just drag the style names 'Heading 1' and so on to a toolbar. To tidy it up, you can edit the buttons using a right click as we've done here:

As you type your document, click a style button to make the text Heading 1, 2 or whatever.

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Roger Frost's Dataloggerama

Summer update

 

www.rogerfrost.com is undergoing spring cleaning as we add a massive data logging section and archive old articles. We've used the opportunity to help you find all you need from the front page

 

Test post
This link takes you to my one-question

Data logging software survey

Contemporary Science

You've read about nanotechnology or seen the space shuttle crash. Set beside the news, school science seems centuries old. But at Garth Hill school in Bracknell, science teaching gained a contemporary edge with the help of "Upd8" from the Association for Science Education (ASE). The Upd8 team produces topical lessons based on current news and then beams out weekly emails and text messages to teachers. Garth Hill is one of several schools trialling this nifty Planet Science and IBM-funded "alerting" service. Head of science Diane Allum Wilson was one of the first to sign up. "At the peak of the Sars epidemic, they sent an idea on how to simulate the spread of the disease across the school. We gave pupils a leaflet meaning that they 'caught' the virus. In turn they passed it on. The whole school took part through lessons, breaks and lunchtimes. The kids really did understand how infection travels." And when Michael Jackson famously dangled his baby from a window, Wilson's pupils started asking why the baby had white skin. In timely fashion, the Upd8 team produced a ready-to-roll lesson on genetics. Allum Wilson finds colleagues run easily with these ideas. "The 'here's a lesson you can do' approach worked well. Best of all, the work generated interest and excitement."

Easy way to wire batteries and bulbs

Just out is a product which, though off our beaten data logging track, offers to help create electric circuits. Called 'Magleads', the leads have 3mm tips made of neodymium magnets that click together. Cool and canny, 'Magleads' come from Commotion

Business news: software company snubbed

FSBM, a leading Malaysian courseware developer has dropped software maker New Media as its subcontractor. The UK firm was hired to develop sixth form software as part of a major government project but were dumped when New Media refused to make the courseware fit the local curriculum without further payment. The rejected software is now being sold in the UK by Plato Learning as 'MSS 16-18 edition' for A level.
The contract, reported to be worth £1.2 million per year was terminated as the company failed to meet targets.

This is not the first time New Media has failed to deliver. As the software supplier to the Science Consortium ‘NOF’ training business, it received a chorus of complaints when it was found that its MSS science software failed to run on school networks. Many schools found it necessary to postpone their 'NOF training' as a result. The company received further complaints about the functioning of the Science Consortium website, made promises to fix them and as reported previously, never did so.

Renowned for wheeling and dealing, this is also not the first time that company founder Dick Fletcher has got other people to fund his software development. New Media's MSS 16-18 A level software was largely funded by Malaysian money. The Multimedia Science School 11-16 software was started with Nuffield Foundation money, and with an odd piece of gifting to the private sector. The product was further developed with funds meant for NOF training. Similarly New Media's Chemistry Set was developed with a government graft money at the University of Nottingham.

Those who have brushed with Dick Fletcher's style of business will not be too surprised. Though when business people lie to you, dishonest is a better description of that style. Readers will recall how the 'Science Consortium' was based on a gentleman's agreement and heavily drained of funds by New Media.


Was the software for Malaysia that bad?
Not really. New Media produced hours of student-focussed on-screen tutorials but the problem was that the lessons would be delivered by the teacher. Needed instead was an interactive lecture than a tutorial.
What we learn is that developing software requires exceptional sensitivity to the needs of the classroom. And that means having multimedia focussed teachers involved at many stages of development. There is little value in producing a teaching tool that uses an hour of lesson time when the curriculum only expects you to mention the idea in five minutes. Basically: if software doesn't solve a problem, don't make it. Or not unless someone else is paying for it.

Data loggerama Annual Summer Update
Changes this year include a new web about our consulting work such as writing and training. There's a slicker noticeboard and by autumn we'll have an update on all the data logging equipment reviews. And in case one thinks all this is useful, there's attempt at data logging merchandise which, with some help could be funny.

Laptops & wireless
The world seems to be divided into those who have discovered 'wireless' and those who have not. Many's the time you pop into a science department and staring you in the face is that the use of wireless networked laptops is the route to easier computing. These laptops can do three key things: print to a shared printer, pick up files from a shared area and, most amazingly when it's wireless, access the Internet. Set up, hopefully by a people-loving sort, 'wireless' can solve the main problem in portable computing: getting files to the right places. This story better gives the flavour
Case study: Science department using laptops and wireless Internet connections.

Enduring Easyjet in the course of duty - data logging

Here's a interesting set of results from Data Harvest's Steve Whitely and Barbara Higginbotham. They endured, noise, rain and a good measure of telling off by Easyjet staff to bring you this picture. What's more, I hope it starts a trend as an excellent way to report what happens in an experiment.

Steve writes (sufferingly I think!) "So we stood in the rain and took pictures of the EasyJet plane. Then we stood in the car park (in the rain again!) and took pictures of the tablet. It's hard to photograph an LCD screen outside so I then took the picture of the tablet screen, cut it out and dropped a screen capture into it - the data is of an airplane engine being throttled up and down. Finally I sized the tablet picture and laid it over the picture of the Jet. The hands are Barbara's.
The picture shows an RM Teacher edition Tablet PC with a Data Harvest 'Flash Logger' and sound sensor. It's an unusually tidy setup with very few wires by virtue of the logger connecting to the RM Tablet's Compact Flash socket. The kit is however tied to Data Harvest's Sensing Science Laboratory, an adequate if muddled piece of software. In a departure from a good tradition of supporting standards, we learn today that Data Harvest will not allow Logotron's 'Data logging Insight' to work with the Flash Logger.



Data logging Xtreme - have you logged data in an unusual setting? We really ought to do a prize for the most interesting set of data logged whilst waiting for a delayed Easyjet flight.
Did you read the story about Easyjet using celebrities in its advertisements without their say so? If so you might find it intriguing that Easyjet told Data Harvest that they couldn't use this picture in their publicity.

Installing USB

Many PC's of the day feature a USB socket for add-ons like scanners, 'play' microscopes and even data loggers. Notable for a plug that has no obvious 'up', it's a socket offering power and plug and play installation.
PASCO for example has a USB sensor range that works with the success you rarely see with data logging. The stuff costs more of course, but you have to see the good side: the pH, acceleration or distance sensor work really nicely as stand alone tools. Some of the UK data logging kits work with a USB cable - although usually it's just an adaptor to bridge between the serial socket on the logger and the USB socket. Though things will change over the next year or so, at this moment it doesn't use the power like true USB.

But lots of folk meet hurdles with USB. The golden rule is to install all the software before you even think of plugging the device in. Sometimes you'll be asked to restart the machine - but do this anyway if you're unsure. Next, when you've restarted and when the machine has truly settled down , you plug the device in, wait patiently and follow the instructions. When the installation is again truly complete, you can start your software. All this is a bit harder on a network system because every machine you use needs to go through this procedure. Some networks delete installations after a restart or when the server is upgraded, so you may hit snags with networks. If this doesn't solve any problem, bear in mind that not all USB ports are alike. It seems to me that this imposes a limit on how many devices you may use. If you use a hub (essentially a splitter) and meet a snag, plug the device in directly without the hub. If you haven't followed all this procedure and have a problem, either look for a software update on the web or uninstall the software, re-boot and start from fresh.

PC to TV Convertor
If like many science departments you're aware that having a data projector is cornerstone to progress, you're also acutely aware that money are its foundations. In the interim, as you wait for a lottery win, a £40 gizmo from Maplin the UK's best gadget shop, lets you plug a PC into a TV. It's USB* powered which should ease setting it up and it has S-video (black mini DIN) and Composite (yellow phono) outlets. You can expect average quality - though watching a DVD was fine when I tried something similar. The price includes VAT so bought for school, there's no complaining about this useful stop gap. Info is correct at April 03: Code A30AU PC to TV Convertor £39.99 (www.maplin.co.uk)

Science Technicians - from Pat Cowden
Our rates of pay and conditions of work vary widely even within the same Local Education Authority.
We would like to emphasise to the Government and the Department for Education and Skills, the strength of feeling over the need for urgent review. The last such review was in 1940. Would you be kind enough to 'sign' our petition?
http://www.petitiononline.com/scitec03/petition.html
Many thanks in advance,

Pat
The Royal Society
The Select Committee on Science and Technology's Third report
"Pay is low; salaries average £9,000...there are few training opportunities for technicians...there is little motivation to undertake training when it will not be linked to career progression...it is difficult to promote the idea of being a technician as a professional occupation; it is more of a stopgap job" "The pay and conditions under which technicians are employed strike us as downright exploitation"

Bottom school comes top
We should glow with today's news that our allegedly worst school in the UK now finds itself top of the league table of most improved schools. It's great to hear how Sir John Cass & Redcoat Foundation school has earned this good press and it's great to note that there are different measures of a good school. 'Cass' is one of our local schools. Just keeping afloat here is a major achievement, but getting ahead is fantastic news and hope that maybe the destiny of any school isn't just a measure of its pupil intake but something to do with the staff.
The fact that I cut my teeth here as head of chemistry and ICT makes me incredibly smug - though the fact that it's improved since has entered my head. Still this was news to enjoy. The language of success

New Junior Data logging Insight

A new version arrives this month. Here's the release from the publisher.
"Junior Datalogging Insight put data collection, analysis and interaction at the heart of their practical investigation lessons. This new release takes Primary Science to a new level. Junior Datalogging Insight is designed to motivate pupils and prompt learning as children work through the ‘planning’, ‘obtaining’, ‘presenting’, ‘considering’ and ‘evaluating of evidence’ elements of the Science
curriculum.
“Literally hundreds of experiments can be quickly conducted by using sensors, loggers and the Junior Datalogging Insight software. It allows pupils to quickly set up experiments and start collecting data, helping to maintain and stimulate interest” explained ex scientist Dr Robert Bowles, Logotron’s Education Sales Co-ordinator.
The ‘Melting Ice Cube’ and ‘Bus Ride to School’ scenarios included with Junior Datalogging Insight can be used to generate classroom discussion and bring meaning to graphs. Features like these inspire children to use sensors with imagination, to contemplate the meaning of graphs, shapes, charts and trends and to use measurement to investigate phenomena. Importantly, Junior Datalogging Insight will prompt learning about how graphs work, how a graph tells a story and how graphs store information from experiments.
Additional features of Junior Datalogging Insight include its simple format control panel, and the easy-to-use graphs with a unique 'stretch and squeeze' control. A choice of seven display windows for simultaneous or single display and tables that grow as data is keyed in are other key features that makes Junior Datalogging Insight particularly special.
But it’s the Movie Windows that really set it apart from other datalogging packages. By controlling an animated cartoon with a sensor or graph reading, the Movie Windows are a great way of prompting thinking and teaching about how graphs work. Movie Windows include: boiling a kettle, making a cup of tea, fizzy drinks, a bicycle ride, and ice cream melting.
Scaling and selecting data is so easy, students will never lose sight of data. Junior Datalogging Insight is compatible with most major dataloggers, and will connect effortlessly to them.
Junior Datalogging Insight costs £52 for a single user pack with substantial reductions offered for additional licences. Existing Junior Insight customers can also benefit from a 30% discount on software and licensing. Logotron has once again proven themselves to be a ‘One-stop Shop’ for quality educational software at an affordable price. Logotron is a Registered Retailer of Curriculum Online meaning all Logotron products can be purchased using e-Learning Credits. For further information please contact the Logotron School Sales Team on: 01223 425558 extension 795".

Tools for thinking
While the simple word processor offers a way to help organise thoughts, there's been a growing interest in the ways that other ICT tools - like Insiration, Branching Databases, Whiteboards and the like can also help. Though just starting with this myself, Mr Joop van Schie from the Netherlands tells me he's collecting information and classroom stories. My first impression of Observetory suggests there's more to this than a passing phase and someone here might be interested in his research. As Joop says in his appeal "I am looking for research on classroom experiences with the use of visualisation tools, e.g. branching databases. I am also looking for lists of applications that visualise cognitive knowledge - or put it another way, ICT tools that help explain concepts, ideas, meanings and basically what's in your mind. A blackboard with chalk does that as do software products like inspiration". Joop is at j.vanschie 'AT' albeda.nl

Chemistry resources - from the RSC

The Royal Society of Chemistry have some neat resources, including two new CD's for schools. Better you go see them for yourself using these links. Most of these pages have a link to a demo - click on the main graphic

www.chemsoc.org/networks/learnnet/alchemy.htm
www.chemsoc.org/networks/learnnet/Pract-CD.htm
www.chemsoc.org/networks/learnnet/Spec-CD.htm
www.chemsoc.org/networks/learnnet/data.htm

First stops for science software

If you'd toured the land last year, you would have wondered if there was more to computers in science than using Microsoft PowerPoint & Excel. Make no mistake: there's little wrong with that, but there is a burgeoning stock pile of excellent software. Some of it is hard to find, all of it costs serious money and much of it appears at the BETT show in January 2003. It's the place to recommend for 'Windows' shopping, though this first item also works on a Mac. The most promising bundle of the year, ‘Multimedia Library for Science’ is great software for chemistry. And it is not just titles like ‘Diffusion’ and Atoms & Ions (from Sunflower Learning £50 each) that smack of relevance, for here is a set of activity-based learning tools with substance.
Why the plaudits? Well up to now we’ve seen experiment simulations and more, but in ‘Dissolving’ we can offer pupils a model where they can play with temperature, concentration and evaporation. It is no 5-minute wonder; it is an opportunity to go deeper into ideas like ‘it’s hotter so more dissolves’. If the work is challenging, it feels like it is for the good.
‘Bonding’ is another favourite where you can take atoms of sodium and chlorine, complete with electron shells and join them by dragging an electron from one to the other. Another, ‘Periodic Table’ lets you graph properties of the elements as a 3-D histogram making for very interesting patterns in density, conductivity and melting point. The MLS software runs easily in your Internet browser and can be previewed online so you can check if it works for you. It’s new and by the time you see it, ready to run with online worksheets.
For physics models, see Fable Multimedia, who as last years BETT Award winner have spawned a series of affordable teaching tools. Motion Time Graphs, Transverse & Longitudinal Waves and Terminal Velocity (each £65) provide a measured learning activity in deservingly difficult areas. For more of this and stretching across the subject, see Physics Online (www.physics-online.com - £295) where models meet movies and online programs (applets). You can sign up for a trial and find not just great resources but a clever and easy way to store teaching material beside them. Do also see Science Online (from £225, Actis) with loads of original resources, stretching from Key Stage 3 to advanced level and something of a tour de force.

Graph paper printer by Phillipe Marquis

Only now and then comes an amazingly useful utility as Graph paper printer. This inexpensive software lets you produce graph paper on your printer. Every kind of specialist paper I've ever heard of is here - log scales, perspective papers, patterns and more. Favourites include a weekly and monthly calendar that can be customised to make booking timetables for example. Demo version is downloadable. Price is so fair I couldn't care to quote it.
While you're there look for some freebies from Mr Marquis (a hospital biologist - not sure what that equates to) that'll suit teachers and science technicians too. For advanced level school chemistry see one of the free titles here called 'Générateur de chromatogrammes' - a program (written in French - but still usable) to generate and print fake chromatograms. Ideal for education or presentations. Go to Marquis Soft

Graph paper sample

Data logging in the classroom

Here you can download a neat, well polished video setting out ideas about data logging. It's excellently produced by data logging manufacturer Fourier and by Horizon Singapore (contact details at the end of the movie). We think the production quality here is exceptional. We wish we had the money (£1000+ a minute) for it too, not least because most teaching scenarios we'd like to film, unlike this vid, have more than one student in a class. As you start watching, hold in mind the look of our website and do just be a little surprised in the opening and closing clips. We were!

Anyway if your machine's happy with Windows Media (wmv - most are) click on the link to open, not save, the video. It should play as it downloads. To make this possible, we've had to shrink the file from 100 Mb to 2 Mb, so expect it to look better at postage stamp size.
Modem - Fourier - Horizon Singapore video.wmv

Broadband - Fourier - Horizon Singapore video.wmv