Accelerate Your Mobile Devices
Shrinking budgets, lack of vision, and inequities among students are just a few of the
challenges that face today’s public
schools and STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math)
initiatives. Yet we continue to restrict
students from bringing powerful
tools to school. We need a shift in the
organizational paradigms that led to
policies that restrict personal devices.
We need more open and flexible definitions of the acceptable use of these
tools. We must redefine the power of
these devices for the kids who own
them and the schools that want to
empower students to use them.
Science instruction should incorporate authentic tasks that require
students to take measurements and
analyze results. Decades ago, teachers
saw the calculator as an add-on to a
traditional math class. It was helpful,
but many educators felt it eroded basic
math skills. Over time, the emphasis on only the mechanics of solving
problems shifted to the analysis of
those problems and their application to new situations. Today, graphing calculators help students solve
more complex problems in a shorter
amount of time and have become an
essential part of the classroom. In
many ways, mobile devices offer the
same benefit.
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We are by no means suggesting that
students should not learn and practice
the very important skills of measurement. Understanding increments and
scales and converting units is a very
important skill set to master. These
apps will allow students to practice
measuring on a more regular basis because they will be carrying their toolbox with them. However, once students
By Jared Mader and Ben Smith
have mastered measuring skills, teachers can place less emphasis on this.
Students can put more time and energy
into higher-order thinking skills, such
as data analysis and drawing conclusions. Leveraging these mobile devices
to promote deeper data analysis will go
a long way toward ensuring their place
in the science classroom.
You can use a website such as www.
appshopper.com to locate and track
app categories, classifications, and
prices.
Measuring length. Whether your
students are working on a micro or
macro scale, many tools allow them to
determine the length of an object or
the distance to it. Using a digital caliper app with another that calculates
distance using the device’s built-in
camera and the Pythagorean theorem
allows students to skip lengthy measurement steps and devote more time
to analyzing the data.
Measuring acceleration. On the earth,
the acceleration due to gravity is 9. 8
m/s2. Your device’s built-in accelerometer allows you to measure acceleration along the x, y, and z axes. Most
acceleration apps will record the value
in a graph or digital meter. The most
common use for these apps is measuring changes to velocity in cars, buses,
and even roller coasters.
Measuring decibel strength. Many
apps measure the decibel level of
sound. Using a microphone, most
of these apps can be set to provide
instantaneous readings or time-lapse
data over the duration of an experiment. Even devices that don’t have
built-in microphones can support
the connection of headphones with
integrated microphones.
Detecting a magnetic field. Devices that
have the ability to display a directional
compass can also measure magnetic
field strength. One caution is that
