Roseville, Calif., Jan. 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — PASCO Scientific announced today that it has joined the Google for Education Integrated Solutions Initiative. This collaboration integrates PASCO solutions with Google products to improve the efficiency of classroom experimentation and science learning.
PASCO Scientific has collaborated with Google throughout the development process to deliver users a fluid experience. “Teachers and students have been using SPARKvue to collect and analyze data on their Chromebooks and Android devices for years. Partnering with Google feels like a natural step forward in our mission to provide educators with a centralized solution for teaching science. We plan to continue improving global access to science education and data literacy alongside Google,” said Richard Briscoe, President and CEO of PASCO Scientific.
The Google for Education Integrated Solutions Initiative features education apps and tools optimized for integration with Chrome OS, Google Classroom, or G Suite for Education. PASCO’s more than 55 years of experience in science education has made them a well-known leader in STEM education and an ideal partner for the advancement of powerful teaching and learning solutions.
The first set of integrations with Google’s offerings include the ability to connect PASCO sensors to the Google Science Journal app on Android, export data directly to Google Sheets on Android, and easily share lab resources from PASCO.com through Google Classroom.
The partnership extends accessibility to educators by providing them with an affordable and compatible sensor solution. Science Journal app users will now enjoy the same plug-and-play sensor experience as SPARKvue users when using PASCO wireless sensors. A new “Share to Classroom” button exports digital experiments from the PASCO Experiment Library to courses setup in Google Classroom. This feature enables educators to export any of PASCO’s free experiments to their entire class with a single click.
Briscoe is confident in the partnership’s potential saying, “At PASCO, we are excited to be partnering with Google in our mission to promote accessible science learning and data literacy. We are consistently striving to provide educators with innovative teaching solutions that improve the efficiency of their classroom. Hundreds of thousands of learners around the world use Google Science Journal. By enabling PASCO sensors to work with Google Science Journal, we are expanding educators’ tools and helping students engage with science learning.”
For more information about the integration of PASCO solutions into Google products, please visit www.pasco.com/resources/google.
I’ve been teaching physics for years and for most of the years that meant one thing: ticker tape. Don’t get me wrong, there is a certain elegance to labs using ticker tape; there just isn’t as much depth. Enter the PASCO Smart Cart and SparkVue software.
I’ve had the carts for a few years now and I keep learning more things to do with them. I wanted students to go deeper into Newton’s laws but how could I do that with the Smart Carts and SparkVue? Here’s what I came up with.
I took my old set-up from the ticker tape days. Have a cart pulled across a table pulled by a hanging mass over a pulley. Change the amount of mass on the cart and the amount pulling the cart. Calculate the acceleration using kinematics. Compare the mass times the acceleration to the weight hanging over the edge.
That set-up is lowish friction, which we could hand-wave away, but I never liked doing that. If we used the carts on a track with the Super pulley would I get better results? Indeed, I did. Measured accelerations were within 10% of theoretical. Could I do better?
I attached the hook to the carts and used the force sensor to measure the tension pulling the cart. Using the data from the force sensor I got within 1% of expected values! This is great accuracy and a starting point for going deeper. Why does the force sensor start with the force of the hanging mass and then drop? Why does the force sensor data give better data then using the values of the hanging mass?
The old lab changed the mass on the cart and the mass hanging off the edge to compare the effects of changing the mass of the system or changing the force of the system. Good but not great. Now I can do the lab over the pulley or run the string through the end stop for increased friction. The students can compare different variations of the set up in the same amount of time it took with the ticker-tape.
With ticker-tape it took a long time and didn’t go very deep; basic understanding only. Now with the Smart Carts and SparkVue we can go deeper, quicker. Isn’t that what we are after? Critical thinking and deeper learning? PASCO’s products offer a chance for that and I am grateful for it.
Confidently Integrate Computational Thinking into Any Lesson with Blockly
Introducing students to coding and computer-controlled outcomes is easier than ever before with Blockly coding. Included in SPARKvue 4 and Capstone 2, Blockly offers students a new world of experimental opportunities that focus on computational thinking and data visualization. Blockly’s visual coding environment is intuitively designed to facilitate the success of new coders, while strengthening the skills of more advanced learners.
Blockly’s colored coding blocks provide students with a visual method for developing strong coding foundations. The user-friendly design allows students to simply drag and connect coding blocks that correlate with syntactically correct coding elements such as variables, commands, and loops.
Blockly within SPARKvue and Capstone is compatible with all PASCO sensors and interfaces. When students combine PASCO sensors with Blockly, they are empowered to design and execute their very own sensor experiments. Students can create code that collects sensor measurements, reports data, or controls output devices such as the Smart Fan Accessory. As they execute their code, students can visualize their data using real-time graphical displays that assist with data visualization.
Real-World Coding Activities: Computational Thinking Meets Data Literacy
The integration of Blockly into SPARKvue and Capstone gives students unparalleled control over their experiments. While developing their code, students can press the Record button at any time to execute it and receive live feedback. Students can instantly monitor sensor measurements through live graphs and digits displays that support debugging throughout their code creation process. Once students have successfully coded their sensor parameters, they can collect data in real time, store it, and use it to inform future experiments.
With an unlimited amount of coding combinations, Blockly allows students to customize and create experimental designs, determine data outputs, and use those outputs to inform future decisions. Through the integration of coding and sensor-based technology, both SPARKvue and Capstone provide a platform for the exploration of phenomena through computational thinking and data visualization.
Sample Programming Activities
Entry Level Programming with the Wireless pH Sensor
The Wireless pH Sensor is the perfect tool for introducing young learners to pH and simple programming. In this activity, students use their knowledge of the pH scale and a Wireless pH Sensor to create code that runs along with their data collection. Using a simple set of coding blocks, students can instruct the sensor to identify a sample solution as neutral, basic, or acidic. As their code is executed, live data displays communicate the code’s effect in real time. A text display will correctly identify a solution’s pH. This simple activity gently introduces students to basic programming concepts, sensor measurement, and the pH scale to instill a foundational sense of confidence and understanding in STEM.
Instruct the sensor to identify a sample solution as neutral, basic, or acidic.A live data display communicates the code’s effect in real time.
Entry Level Programming with the Wireless Temperature Sensor
For introductory lessons, students can learn to program a temperature display and a simple text output. The goal of this activity is for students to create a program that gives instructions to cool a liquid to below 15°C. Students can monitor their live temperature reading and a text output that is temperature-dependent. In this example, the text output reads “Add more ice!” when the water temperature is above 15°C, and “Great work!!” when the water temperature is less than or equal to 15°C. The Wireless Temperature Sensor should be placed in a cup containing room temperature water. Once students have developed their Blockly code, they can execute it using the Record button. Add the ice gradually to reduce the water temperature. A successful program will display a live temperature reading and the correct text when the temperature shifts above and below 15°C.
In this example, the text output reads “Add more ice!” when the water temperature is above 15°C.In this example, the text output reads “Great work!!” when the water temperature is less than or equal to 15°C.
Advanced Level Programming: Thrust with Blockly and the Smart Fan Accessory
The patented Smart Fan Accessory adds versatility to any dynamics experiment. It features numerous control features when plugged into a Smart Cart. Students can control the fan’s thrust and direction from their devices. They can also set start and stop conditions that power the fan on or off when a particular measurement, such as position, reaches a set value. Students can easily determine a parameter and immediately observe its impact on the experimental outcome, which is a powerful component of active learning.
Students can control the fan’s thrust by programming calculations based on sensor measurements. In this example, a student commands the fan to maintain a thrust of -100*[Position]. This makes the fan blow harder as the cart moves down the track, causing the cart to reverse. When the fan senses a determined measurement, the student’s code is executed, producing a physical change in the experiment and altering data collection. Students can test their code’s effectiveness, make corrections, obtain live data, and complete graphical analysis before exporting their lab for grading. This user-friendly platform is an intuitive and time-efficient method for introducing students to computational thinking without straying from standards.
Control the fan’s thrust and direction from their devices.Control the fan’s thrust by programming calculations based on sensor measurements.
Blockly is Compatible with All PASCO Sensors & Interfaces
Organize and present collected data visually to highlight relationships and support a claim.
Use data to highlight or propose cause-and-effect relationships, predict outcomes, or communicate an idea.
Represent data using multiple encoding schemes.
Collect data using computational tools and transform the data to make it more useful and reliable.
Refine computational models based on the data they have generated.
Algorithms and Programming
Compare and refine multiple algorithms for the same task and determine which is the most appropriate.
Create programs that use variables to store and modify data.
Create programs that include sequences, events, loops, and conditionals.
Use an iterative process to plan the development of a program by including other perspectives and considering user preferences.
Test and debug (identify and fix errors) a program or algorithm to ensure it runs as intended.
Use flowcharts and/or pseudocode to address complex problems as algorithms.
Create clearly named variables that represent different data types and perform operations on their values.
Design and iteratively develop programs that combine control structure, including nested loops and compound conditionals.
Decompose problems and subproblems into parts to facilitate the design, implementation, and review of programs.
Computing Systems
Design projects that combine hardware and software components to collect and exchange data.
Motion and Stability: Forces and Interactions
Plan and conduct an investigation to provide evidence of the effects of balanced and unbalanced forces on the motion of an object.
Define a simple design problem that can be solved by applying scientific ideas about magnets.
Ask questions to determine cause and effect relationships of electric or magnetic interactions between two objects not in contact with each other.
Conduct an investigation and evaluate the experimental design to provide evidence that fields exist between objects exerting forces on each other even though the objects are not in contact.
Energy
Make observations to provide evidence that energy can be transferred from place to place by sound, light, heat, and electric currents.
Waves and Their Applications in Technologies for Information Transfer
Generate and compare multiple solutions that use patterns to transfer information.
Integrate qualitative scientific and technical information to support the claim that digitized signals are a more reliable way to encode and transmit information than analog signals.
Engineering Design
Generate and compare multiple possible solutions to a problem based on how well each is likely to meet the criteria and constraints of the problem.
Plan and carry out fair tests in which variables are controlled and failure points are considered to identify aspects of a model or prototype that can be improved.
Analyze data from tests to determine similarities and differences among several design solutions to identify the best characteristics of each that can be combined into a new solution to better meet the criteria for success.
Develop a model to generate data for iterative testing and modification of a proposed object, tool, or process such that an optimal design can be achieved.
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 :)
Marie Claude Dupuis
I have taught grade 9 applied science, science and technology, grade 10 applied, regular and enriched science, grade 11 chemistry and physics for 33 years at Westwood Senior High School in Hudson Québec. I discovered the PASCO equipment in 2019 and it completely changed my life. I love to discover, produce experiments and share discoveries. I am looking forward to work with your team.
Christopher Sarkonak
Having graduated with a major in Computer Science and minors in Physics and Mathematics, I began my teaching career at Killarney Collegiate Institute in Killarney, Manitoba in 2009. While teaching Physics there, I decided to invest in PASCO products and approached the Killarney Foundation with a proposal about funding the Physics lab with the SPARK Science Learning System and sensors. While there I also started a tremendously successful new course that gave students the ability to explore their interests in science and consisted of students completing one project a month, two of which were to be hands-on experiments, two of which were to be research based, and the final being up to the student.
In 2011 I moved back to Brandon, Manitoba and started working at the school I had graduated from, Crocus Plains Regional Secondary School. In 2018 I finally had the opportunity to once again teach Physics and have been working hard to build the program. Being in the vocational school for the region has led to many opportunities to collaborate with our Electronics, Design Drafting, Welding, and Photography departments on highly engaging inter-disciplinary projects. I believe very strongly in showing students what Physics can look like and build lots of demonstrations and experiments for my classes to use, including a Reuben’s tube, an electromagnetic ring launcher, and Schlieren optics setup, just to name a few that have become fan favourites among the students in our building. At the end of my first year teaching Physics at Crocus Plains I applied for CERN’s International High School Teacher Programme and became the first Canadian selected through direct entry in the 21 years of the program. This incredible opportunity gave me the opportunity to learn from scientists working on the Large Hadron Collider and from CERN’s educational outreach team at the S’Cool Lab. Following this, I returned to Canada and began working with the Perimeter Institute, becoming part of their Teacher Network.
These experiences and being part of professional development workshops with the AAPT and the Canadian Light Source (CLS) this summer has given me the opportunity to speak to many Physics educators around the world to gain new insights into how my classroom evolves. As I work to build our program, I am exploring new ideas that see students take an active role in their learning, more inter-disciplinary work with departments in our school, the development of a STEM For Girls program in our building, and organizing participation in challenges from the ESA, the Students on the Beamline program from CLS, and our local science fair.
Meaghan Boudreau
Though I graduated with a BEd qualified to teach English and Social Studies, it just wasn’t meant to be. My first job was teaching technology courses at a local high school, a far cry from the English and Social Studies job I had envisioned myself in. I was lucky enough to stay in that position for over ten years, teaching various technology courses in grades 10-12, while also obtaining a Master of Education in Technology Integration and a Master of Education in Online Instructional Media.
You will notice what is absent from my bio is any background in science. In fact, I took the minimum amount of required science courses to graduate high school. Three years ago I switched roles and currently work as a Technology Integration Leader; supporting teachers with integrating technology into their pedagogy in connection with the provincial outcomes. All of our schools have PASCO sensors at some level (mostly grades 4-12) and I made it my professional goal to not only learn how to use them, but to find ways to make them more approachable for teachers with no formal science background (like me!). Having no background or training in science has allowed me to experience a renewed love of Science, making it easier for me to support teachers in learning how to use PASCO sensors in their classrooms. I wholeheartedly believe that if more teachers could see just how easy they are to use, the more they will use them in the classroom and I’ve made it my goal to do exactly that.
I enjoy coming up with out-of-the-box ways of using the sensors, including finding curriculum connections within subjects outside of the typical science realm. I have found that hands on activities with immediate feedback, which PASCO sensors provide, help students and teachers see the benefits of technology in the classroom and will help more students foster a love of science and STEAM learning.
Michelle Brosseau
I have been teaching since 2009 at my alma mater, Ursuline College Chatham. I studied Mathematics and Physics at the University of Windsor. I will have completed my Professional Master’s of Education through Queen’s University in 2019. My early teaching years had me teaching Math, Science and Physics, which has evolved into teaching mostly Physics in recent years. Some of my favourite topics are Astronomy, Optics and Nuclear Physics. I’ve crossed off many activities from my “Physics Teacher Bucket List”, most notably bungee jumping, skydiving, and driving a tank.
Project-based learning, inquiry-based research and experiments, Understanding by Design, and Critical Thinking are the frameworks I use for planning my courses. I love being able to use PASCO’s sensors to enhance the learning of my students, and make it even more quantitative.
I live in Chatham, Ontario with my husband and two sons.
I’ve been teaching physics for years and for most of the years that meant one thing: ticker tape. Don’t get me wrong, there is a certain elegance to labs using ticker tape; there just isn’t as much depth. Enter the PASCO Smart Cart and SparkVue software.
