The characteristics of the inner layer of the atmosphere, the troposphere, are determinant for Earth's life. In this experience we explore the first hundreds of meters using a smartphone mounted on a quadcopter. Both the altitude and the pressure are obtained using the smartphone's sensors. We complement these measures with data collected from the…

In this article Dave Vernier describes how he turned the total eclipse on August 21, 2017 into a science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) lesson by taking data. He asked teachers and former teachers to join in collecting data and to share it. The most frequently monitored parameters were illuminance (a measure of light brightness as…

Ground-based astronomy sky surveys are massive, decades-long investments in scientific data collection. Stakeholders expect these datasets to retain scientific value well beyond the lifetime of the sky survey. However, the necessary investments in knowledge infrastructures for managing sky survey data are not yet in place to ensure the long-term…

Micrometeorites originate from small pieces of rock from space colliding with the Earth's atmosphere at high velocity, such as the Perseid meteors which hit the atmosphere at 60 km/s. When they do so, they burn up, causing a flash of light that we see as a meteor. Many groups have been successful collecting these particles using various devices.…

In a previous article we demonstrated that a simple, passive external circuit incorporating a thermistor, connected to a mobile device through the headset jack, can be used to collect temperature data. The basic approach is to output a sine wave signal to the headset port, through the circuit, and input the resulting signal from the headset…

Understanding how scientific conclusions are drawn from data is central to learning about the nature of science. Many students struggle with aspects of reasoning from data, including identifying relationships among variables, interpreting graphs, coordinating theory and evidence, and not allowing personal beliefs to outweigh the data when forming…

The study of motion is central in physics education and has taken many forms as technology has provided numerous methods to acquire data. For example, the analysis of still or moving images is particularly effective in discussions of two-dimensional motion. Introductory laboratory measurement methods have progressed through water clocks, spark…

This paper is an examination of a teacher professional development program in northeast Louisiana, that provided 30 teachers and their students with the technology, skills, and content knowledge to collect data and explore weather trends. Data were collected from both continuous monitoring weather stations and simple school-based weather stations…

Oranges, flying disks, pool noodles, and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) pipe may seem like items discarded after a Rube Goldberg experiment, but in fact, these objects were used in teaching science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). This article describes a project in which The Center of Ocean Sciences Education Excellence SouthEast (COSEE SE)…

Scientists often use more than the results of experiment to arrive at a result; they use anticipation and analogy to arrive at the results that fit their theories, and sometimes they correct results in the light of analogy. They also need to be clear about the difference between accuracy and precision. They do all this using not only theories, but…