Ruo on probeware and motion capture

The second session I attended at Summit was Leslie Ruo's session on probeware and motion capture. I have seen Leslie present before - he was the SITL when I started teaching in Saskatoon at Walter Murray Collegiate.

Leslie prepare a set of resources that are really helpful for learning to use the Vernier probes. We have some sample videos, labs and other resources, in addition to links and docs from a variety of sources. I think I would have found it helpful if Leslie talked a bit more about what why we do this sort of capture with students and what type of thinking skills we are trying to promote (like what Bernajean Porter was talking about this morning re headware and hardware).

One of the things that strikes me about the probeware is the fact that students can easily visualize things like slope and compare multiple data sets. Students can spend much less time gathering data and much more time understanding what it means. I think that is a good thing. Gathering data is an important part of lab work in the Sciences, but sometimes it is easy for gathering to take so much time that students have little left to use in the analysis. This strikes a nice compromise.

I liked having the time to play with multiple videos and really enjoyed what Leslie shared about his results in his class using standardized measures like the TUG/K.

The second thing Leslie showed us was how to use the motion sensor to collect data. We learned how to set the time, and collect the data. I was walking as a part of the data collection with my partner, Karen. She accused me of drinking, then Leslie helped us figure out we needed to have me walk towards the go-motion probe. We got to play with the rest of the resources on the DVD for the remainder of the session.