Measure. Analyze. Learn.
This is the Motion Detector.
It's one of our most popular sensors.
It's used a lot in physics and physical science.
It's used in elementary book, middle school book.
So, it's used across a lot of different areas there.
Let me give you, just a quick overview of how it works.
Actually uses echo location, and uses ultrasound.
So, it sends out a pulse of sound from the sensor.
So, it goes out, bounces off an object and comes back.
And so, it's really just measuring how far away
the object is from the detector.
And so, it's using this part right here to do the detecting.
A couple things about it here.
You can open it up.
And, when you open it up, there's a switch on the inside
that allows you to set it for what you're trying to do.
If you're going to do something like walk in front of it,
or toss a ball in the air, you'd like to have
the switch on this setting.
If you're' going to using it with a cart and track,
you would put it on the other setting here.
And, you're adjusting the sensitivity.
So, that's what that's for.
Now, to obtain data, I'm going to do is plug it in to the LabQuest.
And, it’s a digital sensor, so it plugs in here at the top.
And so, it starts clicking.
So, that tells me that it's working here.
And, I'm going to put it on it's back, so I can
move my hand up and down over the detector.
If you look at the meter screen now, it's actually giving a reading,
and if I put my hand up here, you'll see that as I get closer to it,
that the number gets smaller.
As I move my hand away, the number gets larger.
So again, it's just measuring
how far away I am from the detector.
Now, if I wanted to collect some data, all I need to do
is press the collect button, in that lower left hand corner.
And so, I'm going to press collect.
Now, put my hand over it, and move my hand up,
and maybe, let my hand go back down.
So it collected data for 5 seconds.
That's the default for that.
You can change that, to make it longer or shorter, if you want to.
And so now, the upper graph, I have a position/time graph.
And so, as I moved away, you see that it go up.
And, as I move towards, it comes back down.
The lower graph is a velocity graph based on the same data.
So, depending on what you're wanting to look for,
you can do that.
If you wanted to just see just one of the graphs,
you can change it very easily,
by tapping on where it says 'Graph'.
And you could go, 'Show Graph', and I could show 'Graph 1'.
And so, there's just my position graph.
I could look at just the velocity graph if I wanted to,
but just leave it like this.
Now, once I have some data, I might want to do
a little bit of analysis there.
And so, I could go under 'Analyze', and there's
a whole host of features there.
What this is used for is that, maybe, the students analyze this:
they're trying to figure out how far away the object moved,
maybe, how rapidly it moved.
So, the tie to mathematics is great.
And, one of the things that research shows about
using this sensor, is that, the fact that students have a
real-time interaction with the graph,
helps them understand graphical data.
They do have some kind of kinesthetic experience.
Maybe, they're walking back and forth, and these students
recognize that the graph means something,
because they've done this motion,
and they get the two things together.
And, that's a very powerful feature to have,
because you're trying to get your students to understand
what the graph means.
And, this is a great device for making that happen.
So again, it's used in a lot of the different areas.
And, it's definitely a great sensor to have.
It's very popular, and students absolutely love using it.