We have integrated some powerful new educational technologies into our new curriculum in 7th grade curriculum:
Pasco sensors/software and PhET simulations. Pasco makes software called DataStudio that allows students to quickly look at graphical displays of data. In the past, students have had to tediously collect data and make graphs. Now they can do it instantaneously so that they can spend more time analyzing and talking about their data. Students can enter in data they have collected themselves to easily create a graph, or they can connect their laptop to a sensor and collect data automatically. In the fall, teachers used sensors to help students understand about motion and force. In one of the most engaging activities with the motion sensor, students point the motion sensor at themselves. The software instantly makes a distance/time motion graph so that they can easily make connections between how they move (faster or slower) and how that will change the graph (steepness.) They also try to move to create a graph of a given shape. In the winter they will learn how to collect and analyze temperature data to think about heat capacity, heat transfer and energy in chemical reactions.
PhET simulations are created by the University of Colorado and allow students to do experiments and collect data simply in situations that are difficult to create in a typical lab. For example, students can build roller coasters and see how potential, kinetic and thermal energy change as the car goes down the track. They can do experiments in which they can change the amount of friction to see how that affects the net force and motion of objects. The simulations we have used this fall are: Forces and Motion: Basics and Energy Skate Park.
Click here
to learn more.
