Apple Technology Review, Fall 1997: Science with eMates

Learning Science by Doing Science, page 7

A PC card containing six months or a year of data, Tucker thought, would allow the students to immediately compare some of their findings with known statistics. He suggested that such a card could hold a collection of GIS (Geographic Information Survey) maps of the target area, so that students could sketch their findings in relation to this. Obviously, if the eMate could acquire GPS (Global Positioning Satellite) coordinates as well as the GIS information, students could combine the information and pinpoint their location.

All three of the teachers agreed that by changing the nature of a field notebook, the eMate changed the students' concept of field work. According to Tucker, "A teacher often doesn't get to do some things because it takes so long to get down the concept of the field notebook, so long to understand the calibration concept. Generally kids in high school science get lost in the details and don't see the big picture of doing science."

Because the eMate allows students to collect numeric data, to analyze it as graphic patterns, to sketch their observations of the site as well as to record them descriptively, the tool lets students appreciate the larger process of science rather than the minutiae. As Tucker put it, "Typically the science education experience is not as well done because the experiments take so long. For this reason teachers don't do this type of science, because it cannot be fit into their school day and inflexible class schedules."

Observations and Reflections

After almost a week observing students using the eMate/eProbe tools and discussing their use with teachers, several observations emerged:

1. Students focus on the task, not the tool.

Students learned the eMate quickly and were able to use much of its functionality. They used both keyboard and pen with equal facility and found it easy to rotate the screen as necessary. Teams of two could readily see the screen and work together. Students quickly took to beaming their data among teams, easily collaborating with each other.

Students can use eMate anywhere in the field

The ability of students to use the eMate anywhere in the field made it useful for taking notes and analyzing data.

2. Sketching provides valuable qualitative information.

The sketching feature of the eMate added a new dimension to students notebooks. The teachers agreed that the students' use of this feature made them more observant of their surroundings. NewtWorks contains digital stamps in its paint program. If a stamp utility were available to other programs, such as the eProbe's sketches, then students could create stamps and use them symbolically to represent quantities or types of specimens observed.

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