Personal Technology Project #1

For my first 5 points I chose to learn some of the sensors involved in the program Logger Pro.  I went through the first 5 user guides and then designed 2 experiments using 3 sensors.  I worked with a partner with these probes but we were both running the experiments.

Experiment #1

Objective
A key point in understanding many physiological processes is understanding conductivity in different chemicals.

SWBAT: explain the different effects that solutions and temperature have on conductivity.  This will then help them apply this knowledge to different processes.

Description 
I am a biology teaching major so the first experiment we designed was to measure the different things that can have an effect on conductivity.  We decided to use the conductivity probe and the temperature probe to measure different solutions.  First you measure the effect salt has on conductivity.  We did this by taking points of data at different salt concentrations.  Then we measured the conductivity of water and salt with different temperatures.  The graph of salt concentrations vs. conductivity.

Experiment #2

Objective

SWBAT measure the physiological changes that take place in the body while you exercise and then explain those changes in the light of respiration.  

Description

For this experiment we used the temperature probe and the blood pressure probe.  We didn't have the stethoscope that we would need in the classroom.  We measured our body temperature as we increased our physical activity.  We also took our blood pressure before and after our physical activity.  

• What did you learn about probes and sensors?

1. I learned a lot about how you take data with the probes and sensors.  I learned how to set them up in the computer as well as what kinds of things they could be used to collect.  

• What did you learn about Logger Pro? How would you use this technology in the classroom?

1. Logger Pro is an extremely useful tool.  I learned a little bit about how you can modify data into the graph or table you wanted it represented.  I learned how to take different types of data.  I learned how to name the graphs and table as well as enter in manually any data I needed to.  There are a lot of concepts that are very theoretical in biology and it would be useful to allow the students to see evidence of what is happening even though they cannot see it.  I will use it labs to teach many different concepts it will also be helpful in teaching correct data collecting as well as the proper way to interpret data.  

• Which probes and sensors did you feel would be most valuable to you? Why?

1. I thought that the oxygen sensor would be really useful so that students could actually see the activity that is going on in plants and other reactions.  The same is true for the conductivity probe.  It will be really useful for students to measure the conductivity involved in certain experiments.  The barometer and force probes would be really useful to combat some of the student's misconceptions.