Middle School

A common experiment for studying the reflectivity of different colored surfaces makes use of colored construction paper, aluminum foil, a light source, and a light sensor.  Voyager’s light sensor and the little flashlight included with the Explorer Kit are perfect tools for performing this experiment.  Empty graphs and data tables suitable for copying for student use are included with this lesson.
 

Ozobot “Evo” (ozobot.com) is a tiny one-inch diameter robot that can be quickly programmed using a Google Blockly dialect known as OzoBlockly (ozoblockly.com).  This lesson combines the ability to program Ozobot to move freely in a straight line with Voyager’s ability to sense the resulting motion through its range finder.  Students compute the slope of the resulting position versus time graph to determine Ozobot’s velocity.

There are over a dozen activities that you can do with your PocketLab Maker Kit! Below you will find instructions and links each activity, and you can find more ideas by browsing hundreds of PocketLab lesson plans.

First, here is a video on how to assemble the Maker Kit cart.

Make a Magnetic Minesweeper game!

Can you devise an experiment to see whether increased CO2 (carbon dioxide) in the atmosphere contributes to warming? We found a teacher who tweeted exactly what you need! @MontessoriMicky  shared with us his lesson plan on a Bottle Ecosystem and had his class run an experiment using PocketLab to measure the heat absorption of a glass bottle filled with CO2 vs normal air as a control.

Virtually every student of physics has done an experiment to verify the inverse square law of light—light intensity is inversely proportional to the square of the distance from the source of the light.  With PocketLab Voyager this is a quick and easy experiment that is also a lot of fun to perform!

Over the past twenty years, scientists have discovered hundreds of what are known as exoplanets—planets that orbit stars outside of our own solar system.   Different groups of scientists worldwide have used a variety of methods to detect these planets.  In this lesson we will investigate a method that has been quite fruitful in finding exoplanets as a result of the Kepler Mission, launched by NASA in 2009.  Another similar mission is CoRoT, led by the French Space Agency.  These missions identify exoplanets by a method called transit, in which the b

An oscillating cart with a PocketLab provides an interesting way to study Newton's Second Law of Motion as well as some principles of damped harmonic motion.  The apparatus setup is shown in the figure below.  The small dynamics cart that can quickly be made from parts included in the PocketLab Maker Kit is shown in its equilibrium position.  Rubber bands are attached to each side of the cart and to two ring stands weighted down with some heavy books.  It is best to use rubber bands that provide as small Newton/meter as possible.  PocketLab is attached to the cart with its x-axis parallel t

Exploration

When a figure skater spins he/she uses the positioning of his/her arms to control the speed of the spin/ angular velocity. The angular momentum of the skater is always conserved, no matter the positioning of the arms, and can be represented by the equation L = Iw, where L is angular momentum, I is moment of inertia and w is angular velocity. The moment of inertia is an object’s resistance to change in angular velocity and is related to the distribution of the object’s mass.

Objective

Exploration

Angular velocity is the rate of rotation of an object along a specific axes. For example, the blades of a ceiling fan rotate around the fan’s central axis. Angular velocity is often measured in the number of degrees the object rotates every second (°/sec) or the number of complete revolutions every minute (RPM). The PocketLab’s gyroscope measures the angular velocity of the PocketLab about the x-, y-, and z-axis.

Objective

Exploration

We have previously learned that velocity is an object’s rate of change in displacement. Velocity is often measured as meters/second. Angular velocity however, measures the rate of change in the displacement of an object as it moves around a central point.