The increased affordability of microcontrollers and their ever-smaller components are leveling the playing field for any lay person to collect experimental data. Using an Arduino microcontroller and an array of sensors, students and teachers can replicate a number of important experiments studied in undergraduate Ordinary Differential Equations. In this project I will demonstrate the use of DS18B20 digital temperature, ultra-sonic, Infrared obstacle avoidance sensor, and laser module to measure independent variables in important mathematical models.
I will be showing how sensor data collected for Newton’s Law Of Cooling, Newton’s Second Law Of Motion For Free Fall, and Hooke’s Law, can be interpreted with the aid of a computer. I will also utilize the visual and symbolic understanding of Mathematica software to demonstrate plotting and visualizing this data. It is the hope of this presenter to demonstrate how exploring these technology based experiments will nourish student’s curiosity and better facilitate STEM Education.
