Scientific Tool in our Pocket

I just got the new IPhone 6 and it has gotten me thinking about how useful the camera can be in the classroom. The slo mo feature is a great tool for use in science. Filming a reaction or a rocket launch in slo mo allows us to see things that happen too fast.

We recently had a summer rocket launch day with my daughter and some friends. My daughter was launching a water rocket she had made. She noticed immediately that her rocket was flying wobbly and she was trying to determine why. The launch was happening so fast that she could not prove her hypothesis, which had to to do with her fin placement or new cone material she had used. I pulled out my IPhone and started filming launches in slo mo. Here is one video we shot:

We were blown away to watch the water leave the rocket and we had some great conversations about what we saw. We did get some video showing where the wobble started and my daughter did think that her fins were the problem. She changed them and she relaunched with no wobble.

The power of having a device right there ready to video is powerful, especially being able to use the slo mo feature. We need to remember we have a powerful video camera in our pocket and we can quickly upload it to Youtube to share with kids. Sometimes the tools we need are the simple technologies we have come to take for granted.

#rockets #videosinscience