featuring the “museum of data logging” with 20 years of school equipment
visitors this year: 2,556 Sometimes a laptop goes into a comatose state that no amount of charging or on-offing can end. The solution might be to try the following. If you’re desperate do them...
visitors this year: 39 How science topics can be helped by using an IT measuring tool called a sensor. Explained, with examples nearby (from ‘IT in primary science’ by Roger Frost).
visitors this year: 58 Sensors to measure heat and temperature These sensors are available in all flavours to suit different applications. You should be able to decide on the type that suits whole class...
visitors this year: 233 School labs use sensors to measure temperatures and many other parameters that change during an experiment. For example, instead of fitness watch, in the nineties and noughties we’d use a...
visitors this year: 104 Measuring the appearance of cloudy sulfur when we mix acid and sodium thiosulfate is a popular science teaching activity. We can change the temperature or concentration of the reagents, and...
consumer technology of the 1990s / schools technology
by roger · Published Oct 2018 · Last modified Jun 2021
visitors this year: 50 Reviewed by Roger Frost TES 1998 Printers Our turning point with the computer was the day they bought us a decent printer. We were chuffed – so chuffed as we...
consumer technology of the 1990s / schools technology
by roger · Published Oct 2018 · Last modified Nov 2018
visitors this year: 31 A look at a digital camera, scanner and photo printer that radically changed how we do photographs (Roger Frost in the TES 1997) For just a couple of hundred pounds,...
visitors this year: 13 Epson Aculaser C2000 – high performance networking laser from £1300 to £2160 approx + VAT. (Reviewed by Roger Frost for Times Educational Supplement January 2002) Do your work well. Print...
visitors this year: 121 Hewlett-Packard hp psc 950 All-in one printer, scanner, copier, fax and photo-card reader. (TES December 2001) £299 Contact: www.hp.com. Reviewed by Roger Frost Need a photo printer, flatbed scanner and...
visitors this year: 6 One thing we never predicted was the uptake of PowerPoint. A school I know advertised an INSET session as ‘9:30 am PowerPoint’. Never mind the topic! Used in lessons, in...
visitors this year: 97 Reviewed by Roger Frost for Times Educational Supplement April 2002Value 4* Quality 5* Fitness 5* Features 5* You will not find a tastier looking computer than Apple’s iMac. It is a sight...
visitors this year: 125 The technology for teaching science provides electronic sensors that can monitor sound, speed, temperature and anything a school curriculum wishes to measure. The sensors usually plug into a box that...
visitors this year: 119 An all-in-one data logger makes measuring and data analysis in science experiments a whole lot simpler. The Data Harvest EasySense VISION competes with devices from manufacturers such as Vernier; PASCO...
visitors this year: 51 It’s a good sign when you find a simple device to help teach a complicated idea. The DynaKar, invented by ScienceScope, is an example of that and it was a...
visitors this year: 34 At BETT 2013, Data Harvest had the SmartScope iGO (£250), a wireless microscope made to connect with tablet devices and phones powered by Apple IOS and Android. The microscope can broadcast to three devices...
visitors this year: 47 A most asked question was ‘what can I use this data logger for?’ My most used answer to this was to use it as a noise meter. When I needed...
visitors this year: 34 You can sense the human pulse cheaply using a sound sensor. While pulse sensors can now be found even in phones, using a sound sensor works too. Hold a sound...
visitors this year: 38 The speed of sound has been measured in so many ways but this version I saw my colleague Ian Galloway* demonstrate perfectly, impressed so I want to pass it on....
visitors this year: 93 Transpiration and a pressure sensor A sensitive barometric pressure sensor can be used to demonstrate transpiration. The picture here shows a low pressure sensor (as it was called) with a...
visitors this year: 42 I read somewhere that pH probes do not last forever and that may be so. It was certainly true for the draw full of pH probes, all left to dry,...
visitors this year: 31 An investigation with insulated and un-insulated beakers – reloaded “I bought a metal mug to carry my coffee for my daily trip to the train station. But twenty minutes down...
visitors this year: 130 A colorimeter for the reaction of acid and thiosulfate – rates of reaction The reaction of acid with thiosulfate produces a precipitate in a beaker, and we normally measured how...
visitors this year: 21 Simple harmonic motion is rarely as simple as the lesson title implies. This potentiometer-based sensor measures angles as its core rotates. Attaching a ruler as shown (or hack saw blade)...
visitors this year: 100 From Roger Frost’s austerity lab tips, when you run training days in hotels, one improvises, as this tip shows: This IKEA tea towel clip gained an unusual second life as boiling...
visitors this year: 36 Mice and machines – interacting with computers (For Production Solutions Magazine November 2000) by Roger Frost Little has changed with the way that we interact with a computer. Its mouse...
handling data from experiments / schools technology
by roger · Published Oct 2018 · Last modified Jun 2021
visitors this year: 152 The sensors and equipment you buy for school requires software made for it. There IS a generic program, called Insight (below). which works with lots of different manufacturer’s kit. It...
visitors this year: 27 Might be used for measuring the variation in UV light during the day or as meter to compare sun creams and sunglasses. UV sensors can be found in ‘wearables’ like...
visitors this year: 32 Used like a wand and moved in magnetic fields. Interesting in the way it measures the unseen. Has a niche use in applications showing magnetic field changing over time or...
visitors this year: 40 The scope for electrical measurement as obviously as big as the subject itself. Data logging systems tend to measure changes over time and that suits these sensors to measuring the...
visitors this year: 27 Uses a separate Geiger probe to measure radioactive counts or count rate. Most useful are those that show the count rate at a point in time – with a fast...
visitors this year: 51 This sensor allows superb and easy to do investigations into the swing of a pendulum leading on to studies of harmonic motion and damping. (See several examples nearby). It allows...
visitors this year: 43 oxygen sensor Sensor is used in conjunction with an oxygen electrode. Good for demonstrations where you monitor photosynthesis, fermentation or where you re-breathe the air in plastic bag. Before you...
visitors this year: 39 A less widely used sensor that nevertheless shows interesting results when monitoring environments over time. Place one in a polythene bag with your hand, or a plant and see how...
visitors this year: 31 This sensor is used in conjunction with a conductivity cell. It tends to used as a stand-alone meter to measure salinity or total dissolved solids in water. Offers some enhancement...
visitors this year: 23 Balances and interfaces have for a long time tried to find a common language for talking to each other. A few systems found this and offered a balance adapter that...
visitors this year: 30 A surprisingly useful sensor which is usually on the expensive side. They come in various ranges and while no single range handles all uses you can settle on a mid...
visitors this year: 28 A dedicated device that shows the breathing rate or in some designs, the breathing movements. The latter types are more interesting as they show the depth of breathing too. However,...
visitors this year: 37 sound sensor Sound sensors tend to find their use as stand alone noise meters but this misses some interesting uses where sound level changes over time. Just using it as...
visitors this year: 98 Often used elaborately to produce a makeshift colorimeter, the light is very useful for many biology and chemistry experiments on rates of reactions. As monochromatic light is less important with...
visitors this year: 19 Used to measure the flow and direction of heat through clothing or building materials. It contains countless thermistors and unlike a temperature sensor, provides readings as Watts/m2. While its classroom...
rogerfrost.com is a compendium of ideas for using technology with sciencey questions in mind. Started in 1995 to offer ideas to school science teachers, Roger Frost expanded the coverage to home automation, gadgets and sensors to monitor, or understand, what’s going on around us.
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Roger Frost has been writing since 1988 and this web includes his published articles about the use of the Internet; the work of scientists and how technology is useful at home or school.
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