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PhoneLabs brings the promise of STEM engagement to a much-disengaged student population in Australia, with over 40% reporting STEM subjects to be boring or too difficult. These young students are however highly engaged with their phones – to the dismay of many educators.
The use of mobile phones is banned in many schools. “The irony is that these phones have far more sensor, data logging, processing and display capacity than much of the equipment currently found in school labs,” according to Dr Sivam Krish, the founder of the learning start-up Sensibility Ltd.
In most schools, students are still trained in basic physics principles using instruments – such as stopwatches – using tools and methods of teaching that have remained unchanged over a hundred years.
“Physics concepts such acceleration, force, momentum, have for long been taught through equations in abstract terms. This has changed”.
With PhoneLab apps kids can now see in real time what they previously struggled to understand. By mounting phones on cycles and skateboards students can now see the laws of physics in action without the layer of mathematical abstraction.
“This makes a huge difference, as kids are able to connect with laws of Physics directly through their own actions.”
Once physics is physically connected to fun – the stuff that kids naturally love doing through sport or play – learning follows easily. PhoneLabs web services will soon guide students through their experiential learning, letting them understand the laws of nature through physical activity directly through their phones. But that is just one part of what PhoneLabs is developing. The other is to is to combine the wide range of sensor capabilities (sound, light,magnetism,temperature & pressure), data logging capability and display capabilities of smartphones to create new learning experiences with specially designed 3D printed lab equipment.