Apple Technology Review, Fall 1997: Science with eMates

Learning Science by Doing Science, page 5

Once at their various sites along the 100 yards or so of the stream, the students set about their tasks. It was interesting to observe how their discussions were always about the scientific topic of the investigation, not about the tool itself. They had indeed mastered the eMate and eProbe. At first they seemed to handle the new tools rather gingerly, one holding the eMate while the other typed upon it. However, by the second day all of the teams were handling the eMate as a robust tool, entering information into it while it was cradled in an arm, nestled in a lap, or perched on a rock. In order to share her findings, one team member beamed her results to a member of another team while the two were perched on a mossy log.

The students frequently remarked about the consequences and implications of their findings rather than about the data itself. They took for granted the samples registered by the probes and concentrated upon the significance of the data's pattern. Despite the frosty cold morning, two students at the mouth of the stream were intent upon the differences in temperature and pH at various locations along the stream. They speculated as to whether the eggs and fry could survive these conditions, while nearby lay a salmon carcass and great bald eagles flew along the river and watched from tall aspen groves.

Qualitative notes on the eMate

Qualitative notes on the eMate help describe the conditions of the trial.

Teachers' Reflections on This Field Trip

After the first day of student trials, the teachers (Tucker and his two research assistants, Kathryn Mitchell and Peter Kelly) had time to reflect upon the experience of the field trip for their students as well as for themselves. Normally teachers have to spend considerable time managing such a field trip and keeping their students on task, but such was not the case on this field trip. Each subsequent day the students became more expert with the tools; these first days were a chance to understand what the teachers saw as different about their students using these tools and how they believed the tools could change the nature of learning, let alone teaching.

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