Title/Name of Resource: PASCO PASPORT Probeware

Topic: Real-time Data Collection Tools to Support Constructivist Projects in Science and Math

Source/Author: PASCO, http://www.pasco.com/pasport/home.html

Intended Purpose: Use for real-time data collection (such as pH, temperature, dissolved oxygen, distance, heart rate, etc.) and use this data to develop and test hypotheses about a myriad of topics.

Intended Audience: Upper Elementary School, Middle School, and High School Science and Math

Resource Requirements:

• Windows or Mac
• 16 MB free system memory
• 50 MB free hard disk space
• USB port, Serial (COM) port, or SCSI port (for connecting sensors and interfaces)
• Windows: Pentium Processor, Windows 98/ME/2000/XP
• Macintosh: PowerPC Processor, MacOS 9.2 or later
• Cost: From $89 for a temperature probe direct-connected to a computer to hundreds or even thousands of $. Some options include:
  • Match Graph Kit (PS-2706), $138—A kit with a distance sensor that students can use to explore motion
  • Science Sleuth Kit (PS-2717), $229—A portable unit to measure light, temperature, and sound
  • Personal Weather Monitor (PS-2759), $249—A portable unit to measure temperature, barometric pressure, relative humidity, absolute humidity, dew point, and relative altitude
  • Hydromania Intermediate Bundle (PS-2758), $759—A great kit for exploring stream ecology that includes temperature, pH, conductivity, dissolved oxygen, and turbidity sensors

Abstract: PASCO makes handheld data recorders, data analysis software, and a wide variety of real-time data collection probes for both Windows and Macintosh computers. They also have an extensive set of manuals and lesson plans.

The sensors and handheld data recorders are relatively rugged and very easy to use. For example, both the handheld data recorders and the direct-to-computer connectors automatically recognize which probe is attached and are immediately ready to begin recording data.

Data collection rates can vary from 1000 samples/second to as low as one sample per day (up to 50,000 data points total), enabling students to measure a variety of natural phenomena.

PASCO probeware can be used in many different projects and activities. Probeware is particularly well-suited to constructivist activities—students collect authentic data and are then challenged to make sense of it, to analyze and interpret that data and construct hypotheses and explanations for what it reveals.

For example, students could conduct a stream ecology research project. They could sample the insects and other aquatic life at different sites on a stream. They could also collect temperature, dissolved oxygen, pH, conductivity, and turbidity measurements at those same sites. Then they could use a data analysis tool (such as Excel or TableTop) to explore relationships between the data they collected in an effort to explain why some creatures are more abundant at some sites, for example.