In science education, teaching “measurement” is very important, but correctly performing measurements and recording their results is difficult, and can often become time-consuming and boring. Therefore, we are developing educational materials using data loggers that continuously record ever-changing sensor values. This educational material is targeted at students from early elementary school to junior high school, and aims to let them experience the fun and difficulty of measurement, while also enabling comprehensive learning of information processing using computers.
The current implementation of the data logger consists of a breadboard, a microcontroller, and a piezoelectric speaker. The measured sensor values are recorded in the microcontroller’s internal memory and can be read from a PC.
Since sensor values are recorded in seconds, students can learn to decipher familiar phenomena, such as changes in ambient temperature or the ups and downs associated with walking movements, from the time-series changes in the sensor values.