Skip to main content
English Français

1-877-967-2726

Month: July 2019

PASCO Capstone 2 Software

CAPSTONE 2.0 is out now! Free Upgrade for Capstone 1.x users!

Updated with new tools! Designed specifically to collect, display and analyze data in physics and engineering labs.

Features for Capstone 2.0!

Blockly Coding

Helps Students Develop Computational Thinking Skills

Physics educators want more experimental control and programming access to all PASCO interfaces and sensors. Students need tools to develop creative programing and problem solving skills in science. Blockly coding has been built into Capstone 2, giving teachers and students the tools they need to develop these skills.

With PASCO Capstone In Your Lab:

  • Apply coding concepts to your labs
  • Create new sampling conditions
  • Design Sense and Control experiments
  • Create whatever experiment you or your students can dream up!
Capstone Blockly Graph

Trials Table – Coming in 2020!

Capstone Trials TableYou never take only one run in science. You take multiple runs and calculate averages. Next, you vary a parameter while holding the other constant; again, taking more runs and calculating averages. Most software data tables don’t actually allow this to be done easily.

The Capstone Trials Table was created for how data is collected in the science lab and allows for the kind of analysis students need to perform.

  • Organize your data to easily define physical relationships
  • Track variables
  • Average runs
  • Plot derived values

Capstone Mass of PendulumUsing the simple pendulum lab as an example, students will time a simple pendulum under various conditions. They will vary the mass, length, and starting angle. The Capstone Trials Table allows you to vary and keep track of experimental parameters between trials and runs taken in each trial. You can also keep track of statistics for averaged runs and experimental error.

Real-world Science

Scientists always take multiple runs and calculate averages. Next, they vary a parameter while holding the others constant; again, taking more runs and calculating averages. Most software data tables don’t support this and require data export and processing… until Capstone 2.

The Capstone Trials Table was created to reflect how data is collected in science labs. It supports the analysis students need to develop critical thinking skills and interpret the data.

With Capstone students can:

  • Organize data to easily define variable relationships
  • Track multiple variables
  • Average runs within a trial group
  • Plot derived values (such as an average of runs vs. a group parameter)

For example, in the Simple Pendulum lab, students time a pendulum under different conditions by varying the mass, length, and starting angle. The Capstone Trials Table allows you to manipulate variables and track experimental data between trials and runs. You can also keep track of statistics for averaged runs and experimental error.


Graph Pop-Up Tools

Now, whenever tools are activated, the most common actions will be easily accessible on the graph. The pop-up tools allow for easy access to tool features and options.

Capstone Graph Pop-up Tools


Circuits Emulation

Reinforce circuit concepts and tackle student misconceptions using circuit visualization. Combine real-world circuits with simulations, animation, and live measurements. Drag components from the components list, then rotate them and connect pieces together by drawing wires.

With the Circuits Emulation tool in Capstone 2, you can:

  • Construct and modify circuits
  • Show conventional current and electron flow animation
  • Animate circuits with live sensor data

Drag components out from the components list. Rotate components and connect pieces together by drawing wires.

Capstone Circuits Emulation Screen Example

AYVA’s Field Trip to the Ontario Science Centre

Last week, AYVA had the pleasure of demonstrating some of PASCO’s newest wireless sensors for a group of science educators at the Ontario Science Centre in Toronto, Ontario. Together we were able to come up with some fun demonstrations to get kids interested in the wonders of science.

First, we used the force platform to observe the phenomenon of your weight temporarily decreasing when your heart beats. You can look at the data and see the downward spikes occurring every second or so but how do we know that it actually corresponds to your heart rate? At the Ontario Science Centre, they have a stethoscope attached to a microphone so that we could hear the heart beat and see the weight drop simultaneously.

Next the durability of the Wireless Accelerometer was tested. The first test was standing on a desk and dropping it to observe the sensors freefall, but that wasn’t enough to satisfy these innovative educators. Their next idea was to tape the accelerometer to a baseball bat and hit the force platform covered with a layer of foam and a piece of wood.

The Wireless Temperature Link was a big hit with the science educators. For their first demonstration they placed it in a vacuum chamber along with the Wireless Pressure Sensor and graphed both pressure vs. time and temperature vs. time to look at their relationship. The Wireless Temperature Link was then placed in front of a silver dish at the focus point of a heat producing light bulb a few meters away. Even though the light bulb and the sensor had some distance between them, you could still see the temperature increasing quickly over time.

Overall, our little field trip to the Ontario Science Centre proved to be a valuable experience not only for the science educators but ourselves as well. It gave them a chance to play with some of our new technology, while coming up with new and innovative demonstrations that could be used by teachers in the classroom.

Save & Share Cart
Your Shopping Cart will be saved and you'll be given a link. You, or anyone with the link, can use it to retrieve your Cart at any time.
Back Save & Share Cart
Your Shopping Cart will be saved with Product pictures and information, and Cart Totals. Then send it to yourself, or a friend, with a link to retrieve it at any time.
Your cart email sent successfully :)