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Re: palm pilots in physics education?



The Palm Pilot should be as good as a computer, if a program such as
LoggerPro can be used the same way it is used in a PC. By this I mean that
one needs to be able to see and distinguish 2 graphs at once. Students need
to be able to compare the graphs of velocity and position. Likewise they
need to be able to compare acceleration with velocity, and force with
acceleration. For NTN3 law experiments they need to see both forces on the
2 probes simultaneously.

They also need to see the graphs either in real time or with little delay
between the experiment and the graphing. This is inline with the results of
Heather Brasell who found that significant time delay reduces learning.

A third issue is that for best effectiveness the origin needs to be
decoupled from the motion detector.

Because of all of these issues, labs performed using graphing calculators
should have lower effectiveness than labs done with computers. Since the
Palm Pilot is just a handheld computer, it may be as effective as a
computer. I do not know of any evaluations comparing the two. On the other
hand a computer with a nice large screen has a lot more impact, and may have
an edge as a result. The big advantage of the hand held is the possibility
to do a lab outdoors or in a gym. Students might find some results more
convincing when the data is taken in a natural setting. This could be an
opportunity to actually do a study of the 2 types of machines with the same
curricula.

John M. Clement
Houston, TX

Folks,

Thanks for the replies about the Palm Pilots for
use in physics education.

Let me ask a slightly different question....Is there
an advantage to using the Palm Pilots with the Vernier
labs as compared to a PC?

I currently have large set of Vernier lab equipment
currently hooked up to PC's (and Macs). It seems to me
that reading them out with a Palm Pilot just restricts the
size of the screen. Now only one student can see the plot
at any given time. This is a slight disadvantage.

tom


---------------------------------
Dr. Tom Carter
Physics
College of Dupage
(o) 630-942-3346
(f) 630-942-2759
http://www.cod.edu/people/faculty/cartert