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Brendon Walters, a 7th grade student at Patton Middle School, McMinnville, OR, recently spent the day at Vernier as part of "Take Your Daughters and Sons to Work Day." We put him to work collecting data that he could graph and model using InspireData software from Inspiration Software.

Brendon's experiment combined sensor data and survey questions to investigate relationships among grip strength, hand temperature, gender, handedness, and perception of hand strength. To collect the data, he taped Surface Temperature Probes to the sides of two Hand Dynamometers so that the temperature probes would be covered by the test subject's hand while measuring their grip force. The four sensors were connected to a LabQuest interface which was then connected to a computer. The data were collected using Logger Lite computer software in Events with Entry mode with the data averaged over 10 seconds. The "Entry" fields included gender, handedness, and perception of strongest hand for each participant.

Brendon tested 15 males and 15 females. Each participant was required to stand during the experiment. He collected the data while the test subject was squeezing with both hands as hard as he or she could.

Brendon then exported the data to InspireData and built some graphs to help investigate relationships between the variables. Using these graphs, we created an activity on understanding graphing.

Click on any of the graphs below to see a larger version.

Downloads for this activity:

• Download the activity PDF »
• Download the Logger Lite experiment file »
• Download the InspireData file »

Using a local grant, Christine Skipp, first-grade teacher at R.B. Hunt Elementary School in St. Augustine, Florida created an activity that engaged students with science, literacy, and technology. Christine worked with kindergarten, first, and second grade students exploring various objects using the ProScope digital, USB microscope. The students used the ProScope to zoom in on their object, and capture images. Christine was amazed how easy it was for the students to use the equipment. As the students mastered what to do, they became the "trainers" for the other students.

Once they had the images, the students compared their images to pictures in reference books. The students viewed rocks, shells, insects, and more. The students incorporated their images into a multimedia presentation. Christine turned this presentation into a "What is it?" game, where the name of the object is presented, one letter at a time. Below are some of the slides from the presentation.

It is the goal of English Language Learners (ELL) teachers to make every lesson a language lesson. Using lessons with hands-on activities not only gets the children physically active in a lesson, but also provides opportunities for developing language. This has been the experience of Charlotte Park Elementary School first grade ELL teacher Dr. Juanita M. "Marti" Moore.

Dr. Moore's first grade ELL students are always a diverse group of children. Her class last year had 11 Hispanic and four Somali students. The children come to her with diverse experiences, levels of language learning, and length of time in a school setting. Dr. Moore turned her experience writing the Vernier book Let’s Go! Elementary Science into an opportunity to bridge the common experiences of her students. Dr. Moore integrated the Go!Temp temperature probe into the Nashville, Tennessee math and science curriculum and found that Go!Temp not only provided a great starting point for learning math and science, it provided an authentic opportunity for language development.

One activity Dr. Moore used with her class is a modification of an activity from the book Let’s Go! Investigating Temperature. The students were given a cup of ice water and asked to put their hands in the water to see how it felt. They were then asked to use a Go!Temp (using Logger Lite software) to create a temperature graph of the water. The students described the graph, taking time to use appropriate adjectives in complete sentences. They quickly connected the way the water felt with what they saw on the computer screen. The class repeated the experiment using a cup of room temperature water. Next, the class discussed what they thought the temperature graph would look like for water that was too hot to touch. They tested their prediction in a demonstration setting, rather than having the children handle very hot water. Dr. Moore noted, "The amount of language in this very simple activity was really amazing. The children used comparisons, descriptions of temperatures, and listed liquids that might be at each temperature."

After the initial exploration, the class continued with each child watching the graphical display while holding the Go!Temp in the air, and then grasping the end of the probe. The resulting change in the graph was very vivid, and they were able to connect the rising line with the fact that their bodies were warmer than the air temperature. They also compared the hand temperatures of three children on the same graph and learned to use more complicated comparative language, such as warm, warmer, warmest and to use them in complete sentences. Dr. Moore extended the language lesson by having the students explore different ways to say the same thing; for example, the same three children’s hand temperatures could also be described as cool, cooler and coolest.

While these experiences may seem very basic for many classrooms, English Language Learners often need springboards into language that are more linked to personal experience. Using the Go!Temp helped Dr. Moore turn a hands-on math and science lesson into an amazing opportunity for language growth for her ELL students.