Empirical education through built-in smart device sensors in phones
Intro
Smart devices are flooding our classrooms. iPads, Droids, iPods are being used as a way to communicate, take notes, access resources and simulations on the Internet. But perhaps their greatest education value is not being tapped. With no additional hardware, these devices are capable of deploying a broad set of sensor arrays within the devices to help students understand and interact with the world around them better. In reference to the TV show StarTrek (tm), we are often using smart devices as communicators and library pads, when perhaps the greatest functionality of these devices is as a tricorder, able to help us see directly into the geology, meteorology, and biology of the world around us.
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Warning: The spreadsheet below contains a significant number of apps that have ads because they are free. Prices vary, this is just a set of recommendations based on functionality.
Origami Microscope = Foldscope!
Cardboard Microscope for $1.00
Check out this foldable microscope from Standford that is about the size of a large bookmark and is a fully functional microscope. It can let you look closely at biological, minerological or other specimen and can even facilitate images with a smart phone and projection with a light source! Check out the cool video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yyRnLh_c4Hg and the site for the Foldscope at http://www.foldscope.com/
Spectrometer
Foldable, Nearly Free attachment, and iPhone app!
Here is using the Public Laboratory spectrometer attachment (http://publiclaboratory.org/wiki/foldable-spec) I made and the Smarty Mass Spectrometer app for analysis. Note, that it is just a light spectrometer and not a mass spectrometer as in: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_spectrometry but you can see the app at: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/smarty-mass-spectrometer/id561857200?ls=1 They have some great scientific applications for apps that are good for education, but importantly provide a way for all folks to operate as citizen scientists, providing real data for discussions without having to rely on media, corporate directed science, expensive experts, or the long haul of bureaucratic review. If you want to know what chemicals are in something, you should be able to find out and confirm it on your own. Now you can... See picture below of my first attempt:
