Jack Randall's Sensor Sensibility reveals to students the fascinating connections between mathematics and science through a collection of engaging activities. These investigations broaden students' understanding of algebra as they use the simple technology of a Calculator-Based Laboratory™ (CBL) electronic data collection device from Texas Instruments, a sensor, and a graphing calculator to collect their own data and construct mathematical models of everyday phenomena.
Sensor Sensibility contains 11 central activities in blackline master format. Students can measure the voltage of a battery or the brightness of a flashlight, or they can record the wave form of a single musical note or the cooling of a container of hot water. Each of the first ten activities contains instructions for specific activities, while the eleventh directs students to design and model an activity of their own. The activities are appropriate for students in courses ranging from algebra to precalculus and are designed to be conducted in a typical 45–50 minute class period.
In each of the central activities, students do the following:
- Predict the mathematical model of a simple experiment based on a short description
- Perform the experiment using a Texas Instruments TI-82 or TI-83 graphing calculator, a CBL, and a sensor
- Compare the results of their prediction with their actual experimental results
- Find a function that fits their data and models their experiment
- Use their function model for further prediction and analysis
Randall, a high school chemistry teacher at the Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan, has authored other CBL activity books, including some of the earliest books on the subject. With the proper tools, his activities will have students describing jumping, rolling, falling, bouncing, bubbling, warming, singing, mixing, and other routine phenomena as logical, predictable, organized, mathematical functions. Randall calls this "the stuff of a mathematician's dreams."
Teacher Support Materials
To make the technology as accessible as possible to a busy teacher or first-time CBL user, the book is chock-full of teacher support materials. A Supplementary Instructions section contains useful calculator instructions, a screen-by-screen guide for using the calculator program MATHSCI (an interactive calculator program designed to support all the activities in this book), notes about each different sensor, a table of relevant mathematical function models, and ideas for more activities. The introduction includes classroom management strategies for classrooms that have limited access to CBLs, as well as those that are well equipped.
Accompanying Disk Material
Disk materials for both TI-82 and TI-83 calculators in Macintosh® and Windows® formats include the MATHSCI calculator program, the TI-GRAPH LINK™ application required for exchanging information between calculator and computer, ten programs of sample data sets related to each Sensor Sensibility activity, and a detailed guidebook for using the TI-GRAPH LINK software.
Download the new versions (as of 11/98) of MATHSCI for Macintosh® and Windows® operating systems.
Additional Materials Needed
Activities require a CBL data collection device, a TI-82 or TI-83 graphing calculator, a TI-GRAPH LINK cable, and a number of sensors appropriate for particular activities (light sensor, pressure sensor, voltage leads, temperature sensor, microphone, motion detector, or pH sensor). Many activities require some additional, ordinary materials such as a basketball, batteries, vinegar, or a flashlight.
