This week in education news, New Mexico unveiled proposed science standards that omit references to climate change and evolution; all California teachers with a teaching credential, including preliminary credentials obtained through a traditional teacher preparation program or an intern credential, will now meet the definition of “effective;” teachers need to keep creativity at the forefront of the educational spectrum; the Partnership For 21^st Century Learning launched a new learning framework; panel says teachers are quitting because they’re dissatisfied; it’s all about ‘new collar’ jobs; and solving real-world problems is key to Ed tech success.

WHOSE SCIENCE? Critics Say Proposed NM Science Standards Omit Evolution, Climate Change

New Mexico’s Public Education Department unveiled proposed teaching standards this week that critics say would omit references to evolution, rising global temperatures and the age of Earth from the state’s science curriculum. The standards are based on a science curriculum called the Next Generation Science Standards proposed in 2013 by a consortium of 26 states. But the New Mexico plan contains additions and deletions from the nationwide standards. Read the article featured in the Albuquerque Journal.

California Defines ‘Effective’ And ‘Ineffective’ Teachers, And Why It Matters

Intern teachers in programs like Teach for America who earn their preliminary credential while on the job will not have the scarlet letter of being labeled an “ineffective teacher” in California. In adopting the state plan for the Every Student Succeeds Act on Wednesday, the State Board of Education resolved a remaining contentious issue: the definition of an “ineffective teacher.” It decided not to include teachers with intern credentials in the definition after much testimony from former intern teachers and districts that readily hire them. Read the article featured in EdSource.

A Teacher’s Tips On How To Get Kids Excited About STEM

Emerging diseases, energy sustainability and severe weather are just some of the global issues today’s students will be asked to solve using the skills they learn in the classroom, according to one local teacher. Kenneth L. Huff, a middle school science teacher in the Williamsville Central School District, was one of 10 teachers nationwide chosen to help promote the science, technology, engineering and mathematics curriculum as a 2017 STEM Teacher Ambassador. Read the article featured in The Buffalo News.

Putting The ‘A’ In STEAM Education This School Year

As more students head back to school, we will continue to hear about how educators can successfully incorporate STEM education into curriculums from as early as Kindergarten. Whether it’s providing students with hands-on robotics tools where they can learn to code, program and design on their own, or using more in-class devices like Google Chromebooks that familiarize students with technology and problem-solving skills, there are many ways to integrate STEM into the classroom. However, as we put our efforts on fine-tuning these technical skills, we often lose sight of creativity. Read the article featured in eSchool News.

Your One-Stop Shop For ESSA Info On Teachers, Testing, Money, and More

For teachers, parents, principals, and others, the Every Student Succeeds Act is no longer on the horizon. Now it’s in their schools. Yes, ESSA has officially taken effect this school year. All but four states have turned in their plans for the education law’s implementation to the federal government—and some states’ plans have already gotten approved by the U.S. Department of Education. But there’s a decent chance you’re still gathering information and learning about ESSA. Read the article featured in Education Week.

The Partnership For 21st Century Learning Launches Framework To Help Today’s Youngest Learners Get Ready For Tomorrow’s Challenges

The Partnership For 21^st Century Learning launched a new learning framework to provide practical guidance on integrating 21st century skills into learning programs and experiences for the youngest learners. The framework extends the organizations’ body of work, integrating early learning into the college and career readiness continuum. Read the press release.

Teachers Are Quitting Because They’re Dissatisfied. That’s a Crisis, Scholars Say

States and districts must find ways to keep teachers in the profession—or they’re staring down the barrel of a growing teacher shortage, researchers and policymakers said at a panel discussion here on Tuesday. Read the article featured in Education Week.

Companies And Colleges Unite To Train ‘New Collar’ Students

So long white collar and blue collar. Now it’s all about the “new collar” job. In the current technological economy, where factories and production plants are closed or workers are replaced by computers, those computers need to be maintained and programmed. Enter “new collar” jobs — positions that require some specialized education (typically in a technical field), but not a four-year college degree. Read the article by NBC News.

Solving Real-World Problems Is Key To Ed Tech Success

As more classrooms are becoming one-to-one tech environments, schools are looking for more active ways for students to engage with classroom technology. One such way to do this is through problem-based learning, where students must use technology to find a solution. Read the article featured in Ed Tech.

Stay tuned for next week’s top education news stories.

The Communication, Legislative & Public Affairs (CLPA) team strives to keep NSTA members, teachers, science education leaders, and the general public informed about NSTA programs, products, and services and key science education issues and legislation. In the association’s role as the national voice for science education, its CLPA team actively promotes NSTA’s positions on science education issues and communicates key NSTA messages to essential audiences.

The mission of NSTA is to promote excellence and innovation in science teaching and learning for all.

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Introduction

STEM Sims provides over 100 simulations of laboratory experiments and engineering design products for applications in STEM classrooms. One particular simulation found on this site, Data Visualization, is a stimulating and imaginative tool for students to analyze a graphic representation of Napoleon’s 19th Century invasion of Russia. Hence, students use data provided with an 1889 graphic representation drawn by Charles Minard. The drawing is detailed and gives a variety of information about the military campaign. Subsequently, students are able to imagine they are military historians investigating and making inferences to analyze the success or the campaign. As is the case with all STEM SIMs software, Data Visualization is aligned with national (NGSS) standards (see below) and is compatible with state standards as well:

• MS-PS4.C – Information Technologies and Instrumentation
• MS-ESS2.D – Weather and Climate

The simulation provides students with a brochure (see link below), a pre-assessment quiz, as well as introductory information about the concepts of Data Visualization. The simulation provides students with valuable data analysis skills; which offer an excellent content map that integrates mathematics, science, and social studies very well. Moreover, the activity challenges students to solve the problems of how and why the campaign failed, making it both engaging for students and stresses the higher levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy, e.g., Analysis and Evaluation.

Brochure: https://stemsims.com/simulations/data-visualization/brochure/brochure.pdf?version=2017-01-10

STEM Sims provides four separate lesson plans for this simulation (see links below) and provides an excellent learning opportunity for students while minimizing the planning needed by teachers:

Lesson 1: https://stemsims.com/simulations/data-visualization/lessons/lesson-1.pdf?version=2017-01-10

Lesson 2: https://stemsims.com/simulations/data-visualization/lessons/lesson-2.pdf?version=2017-01-10

Lesson 3: https://stemsims.com/simulations/data-visualization/lessons/lesson-3.pdf?version=2017-01-10

Lesson 4: https://stemsims.com/simulations/data-visualization/lessons/lesson-4.pdf?version=2017-01-10

Conclusion

Data Visualization, much like the other simulations on this site, gives students the opportunity to learn authentic and integrated STEM concepts. Moreover, this simulation provides science teachers with a valuable opportunity to work across the curriculum with other subjects. Therefore, science teachers will have the opportunity to work with other teachers and make more diverse connections with their science students. Consider signing-up for a free trial to evaluate this excellent simulation for your classroom and try to determine where this simulation fits into your instructional planning.

For a free trial, visit https://stemsims.com/account/sign-up

Recommended System Qualifications:

• Operating system: Windows XP or Mac OS X 10.7
• Browser: Chrome 40, Firefox 35, Internet Explorer 11, or Safari 7
• Java 7, Flash Player 13

Single classroom subscription: $169 for a 365-day subscription and includes access for 30 students and 100 simulations.
Product Site: https://stemsims.com/

Edwin P. Christmann is a professor and chairman of the secondary education department and graduate coordinator of the mathematics and science teaching program at Slippery Rock University in Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania. Anthony Balos is a graduate student and a research assistant in the secondary education program at Slippery Rock University in Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania

What could be better than one anisotropic magnetoresistance magnetic field sensor? How about three anisotropic magnetoresistance magnetic field sensors and a Hall effect sensor as well! Pack them all into a lightweight watertight housing with a rechargeable battery and wired or wireless connectivity and you’ve got yourself a Vernier Three-Axis Magnetic Field Sensor.

Vernier Three-Axis Magnetic Field Sensor

I’ve been a fan of Vernier’s magnetic field sensors for decades, ever since the 1990s when my earth science students used the sensors with their primitive Apple laptops in the fields, hills, and caves of Craters of the Moon National Monument in Idaho. 

Back then the magnetic field sensor was long cabled tube with amplification box that connected to a computer via a wired and powered interface box of some variety (Bluetooth hadn’t yet cut it’s teeth in classroom electronics yet so adding “less” to wire was years away). Still, the students loved making sine waves of magnetic field strength within the futuristic Logger software. Measuring the earth’s magnetic field, as well as the orientation of two thousand-year old basalt flows. Students could pick up a broken piece of basalt and using the Vernier Magnetic Field Sensor re-orient the stone in relation to the larger background rocks.

In the classroom, the student used the Vernier Magnetic Field Sensor to locate and map magnetic objects buried in sand, and even hypothesize about the objects size, shape, depth, and density using a control set of objects and sandbox.

Today Vernier offers a wireless Three-Axis Magnetic Field Sensor as part of their Go Direct series of sensors. Back in the 1990s it was a substantial update when the DIN connector changed to a BTA connector, and the beige serial connection box morphed into the translucent LabPro. To think that a couple blinking lights was exciting feedback from a battery-powered interface! 

Go Direct sensors are a new class of Vernier probeware that evolved out of almost 40 years of science teaching hardware and software that built in or bolted on advancements in consumer technology including replaceable battery power, USB connectors, rechargeable batteries, mobile device compatibility, touch screens, multiple inputs, online support, digital curriculum, wireless communications, more touch screens, low energy Bluetooth, and now universal power and data connectivity using the EPS standard.

Today’s topic is the Go Direct Vernier Three-Axis Magnetic Field Sensor. The sensor is a breakthrough in capability, size, weight, price, and most important performance. The Vernier Three-Axis Magnetic Field Sensor measures magnetic field strength along three planes within one sensor. The 12.2 centimeter long probe (19 cm overall) has a tiny 0.7 cm footprint on the tip allowing the probe’s proboscis to be inserted inside some small spaces such as inside solenoids with no clumsy cables, or probe rotations to mimic three-axis measurements.

But should the need for a cabled connection between Go Direct sensor and digital device, that is certainly possible as well. Using the same micro-USB port that charges the internal battery, the Go Direct sensor can be hard-plugged directly into a computer. Why go wired when you could be wireless? Good question. The backwards compatibility allowing a copper connection over an electromagnetic one expands the usability of the sensor. A little-discussed element in the science lab is sacrificial computer or tablet. As technology ages, it looses it reliability, connectivity and security. By being able to buy the most modern digital sensor yet plug it into an obsolete machine for lab work fresh life is breathed  into old tech. The Go Direct concept is also a significant upgrade when using BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) science classes because an old Windows machine will work along side a Macbook Pro next to a Chromebook, next to an iPad, next to an iPhone or Android smartphone.

But on to the Vernier Three-Axis Magnetic Field Sensor. By using multiple sensors built into a single  33 gram probe, the nimble Vernier Three-Axis Magnetic Field Sensor can be waved  about like a magic wand, or maybe more like a symphony conductor’s baton as the student conducts their experiments. And at only 33 grams, that almost 14 Vernier Three-Axis Magnetic Field Sensors per pound.

So how does the sensor work? It uses two methods of measuring magnetic fields. The tip of the sensor has a +/- 5 mT chip that applies the property William Thompson (aka Lord Kelvin) observed in 1856, a phenomenon now called anisotropic magnetoresistance or AMR.

So what do you get when you mix the quantum physics effects of spin-orbit interaction with the magnetization of a material? Magic? Well actually anisotropic magnetoresistance. But it seems like magic. Ever wonder how a digital compass works? Like the kind in cell phone apps and GPS receivers. Do you think there’s a little magnet spinning in your phone? Actually, there might be, but not for the compass. Moving metal in a phone is how it vibrates when a call or text comes in. In the case of anisotropic magnetoresistance, there is an effect on electrical resistance between the direction of magnetization and its angle relative to an electrical current. Maximum electrical resistance occurs when the magnetic field is parallel to the direction of the electrical current. And of course the sensor must be calibrated for the job it will do.

In order to determine polarity of the magnetic field, a thin film of permalloy has strips of gold (or aluminum) laid across it inclined at forty-five degrees. With the current unable to flow along the normal path of least resistance, instead it is offset at and angle and thus forcing it to have a dependance around a neutral point. Like I said, magic.

Back in 1960 at the General Conference on Weights and Measures, the unit of Tesla was announced. One tesla is equal to one weber per square meter with the weber (Wb) being the SI unit of magnetic flux. The weber is named after the German physicist Wilhelm Eduard Weber. 

Measuring the X-direction Magnetic Field Magnetic fields that point in the same direction the wand is pointing are recorded as positive, and fields that point in the opposite direction are recorded as negative. Thus, the magnetic field of the Earth will register as a positive field when the wand is pointed toward the magnetic pole in the Earth’s northern hemisphere, which is a South magnetic pole. When the wand is aligned with a permanent magnet and pointed toward the South pole of a magnet it will also record a positive field.

Measuring y- and/or z-directions The marks on the sides of the wand, at the tip, indicate the y- and z-directions of positive magnetic field measurements, as well as marking the location within the housing where the ±5 mT magnetic field sensor is located. This is important for consistent placing of the sensor and accurately measuring the distance between the sensor and the source of a magnetic field.

In the case of the Vernier Three-Axis Magnetic Field Sensor measurements of +/-5 mT are possible as well as measurements of +/-130 mT. How can this be, you might ask, with no switch between a high and low setting like on previous magnetic field sensors? Great question. Part of the magic of this sensor is that it is actually multiple sensors. About five millimeters from the tip of the sensor is the +/-5 mT anisotropic magnetoresistance sensor, and about 10.5mm from the tip is the +/-130 mT Hall effect sensor.

The tip of the sensor is noted with three embossed dots indicating the actual location of the sensors with two labeled as Y and Z with the third dot on the very end of the probe completing the triple capabilities of the Go Direct Vernier Three-Axis Magnetic Field Sensor

Just upstream a centimeter on the probe’s shaft is a Hall effect sensor for measuring a larger amount of magnetic flux. The Hall effect is the production of a voltage difference across an electrical conductor but transverse to an electric current in the conductor and to a magnetic field perpendicular to the current. Edwin Hall discovered the effect in 1879 while working on his doctoral degree at Johns Hopkins University. If only we could all be so lucky. And Hall did all this work almost two decades before the electron was even discovered!

At total of six data channels are measurable with the Go Direct Vernier Three-Axis Magnetic Field Sensor: X, Y, and Z magnetic field, and X, Y, and Z 130 mT magnetic field.

The durable sensor is water resistant, but the ~2.4 GHz of the Bluetooth signal is not. So underwater measurements would be a good candidate for using a USB wire.

The software to make the Vernier Three-Axis Magnetic Field Sensor really go to work is called Graphical Analysis 4.  So powerful is GA4 that it will get its own writeup in the future. But don’t wait for that day. Download it for free now.

For when you want to hold the Vernier Three-Axis Magnetic Field Sensor stationary, there are many solutions. No tripod mount is on the sensor, but the sensor fits wonderfully in the Joby GripTight ONE Mount which then can be attached to a tripod. Of course you could also just use a rubber band.

Conducting experiments and inspections with magnets is as easy as waving your magic wand. Don’t have a magic wand? Then use the next best thing, a Go Direct Vernier Three-Axis Magnetic Field Sensor.