Types of Interactions

What is hysteresis?

Hysteresis can be defined as a lag time in the response of a system to forces placed on the system.  A common way used in physics classes to observe hysteresis is by loading and then unloading weights from a suspended rubber band, while observing the extension of the rubber band.  Students find that the rubber band does not Obey Hooke's law.  They also observe that the amount of stretch of the rubber band is different when unloading than when loading.

Introduction

LIDAR—an acronym for Light Detection and Ranging—is a method for remote sensing to measure distances.  While LIDAR commonly uses reflected laser light to accomplish this, students can investigate LIDAR principles by using Voyager’s IR rangefinder in conjunction with Ozobot Evo.  Ozobot is a tiny programmable robot that can follow lines.  In this activity, PocketLab Voyager is mounted on top of Ozobot.  While Ozobot t

Introduction

Magnets, from the traditional alnico bar magnets to the modern neodymium magnets, have been of interest to most everyone for decades. The attraction or repulsion of two such magnets when brought close together is particularly interesting. This can be expressed by making quantitative measurements relating magnetic field strength to distance from the magnet.

LIDAR—an acronym for Light Detection and Ranging—is a method for remote sensing to measure distances.  While LIDAR commonly uses reflected laser light to accomplish this, students can investigate LIDAR principles by using Voyager’s Gyroscope and IR Range Finder in conjunction with the PocketLab-Scratch integration.  PocketLab support has described a project in which Voyager was mounted to an RC BB-8 Star Wars toy to map a two dimensional image of a “room”.  In this lesson, the aut

A novel activity that demonstrates one of the effects of a microgravity environment. In this exercise, the structure of a flame is filmed while simultaneously plotting the acceleration of the system as it is released and experiences freefall. The apparatus is low-cost, possibly using only scrap materials found in the classroom. A PocketLab One is paired with a smartphone and used to collect the data.  Conceptually, the exercise is straightforward, though considering noise in the data, limits of the system, and chemistry applications could easily enrich the content.

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).  Combining the ability to program Ozobot to rotate precisely as desired with Voyager’s ability to sense the resulting motion through its collection of sensors, the possibility of a seemingly endless variety of STEM projects becomes a reality.

The effect of mass on the terminal velocity of an object falling in air is commonly done using basket coffee filters.  But how could we study the effect of area on the terminal velocity of a falling object?  One way to do this is to use PocketLab Voyager and its range finder along with a single piece of cardstock as the object to be dropped.  In this lesson, students discover a relationship between area and terminal velocity and compare their results to a common model of air resistance (aka drag).  

PocketLab makes is quite easy to investigate and verify the inverse cube law for the magnetic field of a neodymium magnet as a function of distance from the magnet.  All that is needed in addition to The PocketLab is a centimeter ruler, small neodymium magnet, a small block of wood and a little double stick tape.  The photo below shows how the neodymium magnet is taped to the block of wood with the magnet located at the 10 cm mark on the NSTA ruler.  The height of the center of the magnet is at about the height of the circuit board inside of PocketLab.  The X on the front face of PocketLab

Exploration

An accelerometer is a device that will measure acceleration forces. These forces may be static, like the constant force of gravity pulling us towards the Earth’s surface, or the force may be dynamic, like an object moving or vibrating. This lab will show how to use to accelerometer to measure the static angle of a ramp as it rotates between 0° and 90°.

Objective

Exploration

In the Magnetic Minesweeper Lab, you will recreate the classic computer game Minesweeper in real life! Using PocketLab’s magnetometer, you will try to discover hidden mines and mark their locations on a grid. You can do this lab with two people to create a Minesweeper competition. One partner hides mines in different grid locations while the other partner tries to locate the mines to not get blown up!

Objective