Elementary | AYVA Educational Solutions

Carolina Biological Products Named Best-in-Class for K to 12 Science Teaching and Learning in National STEM Awards

Educators Pick Best of STEM® 2023 Awards recognize innovative STEM products for education that go above and beyond to inspire today’s teachers, students and science classes

BURLINGTON, NC, Aug. 30, 2023 – Carolina Biological is proud to announce that its products won a number of new science education awards. Leading K-12 science supplier Carolina Biological Supply Company won four prestigious national Educators Pick Best of STEM® 2023 Awards and earned Finalist in two more categories. The awards are the only competition in which products are reviewed and judged only by STEM educators. Thirty-four awards total were given in thoughtful and important categories tailored to STEM education. The awards program, operated in partnership with the National Science Teaching Association (NSTA), MCH Strategic Data and the National Association of Biology Teachers (NABT), spotlights innovative products, technologies, and services that are changing the world of STEM education.

Winners were chosen for qualities such as alignment with NGSS standards, the use of simulations, instructional support for teachers, and the flexibility of implementation for different modes of instruction across all STEM topics. Carolina Biological Supply Company was awarded for: Building Blocks of Science® 3D won “Bridging the Gap—English Language Learners: Science & Literacy,” Smithsonian Science for the Classroom™ won “Best of STEM: Most Comprehensive Culturally Relevant Teaching,” and Carolina® Healthcare Simulations Kit Series: Blood Typing Kit won “CTE Training: Health Science—Training Kits” and Carolina Distance Learning® Online Gateway HyFlex won a “Trailblazer Award: Hybrid Learning Superhero.” Carolina also received Finalist status for 3-D Earth and Space Science Kits for “Best of STEM: Environmental Science” and CRISPR in a Box™ Kit for “Trailblazer: Biotechnology Innovator.”

Products were judged first by an expert panel of judges. Then, more than 267,000 STEM educators were invited to evaluate the finalists via survey. For information about the awards program, visit www.bestofstemawards.com. Carolina has won eight Educator’s Pick Best of STEM awards over the last three years, demonstrating breadth and depth of high-quality products, curricula and teacher resources in K-16 education. Awards have been earned in such subjects as elementary and middle-school science, biology, chemistry, physical science, environmental science, career technical education (CTE), and anatomy and physiology.

“Carolina employees put their hearts and minds into developing new products to support science teachers at all instructional levels,” said Jim Parrish, CEO of Carolina Biological. “It’s rewarding to have those we care so much about affirm our work and mission with Educators Pick Best of STEM® 2023 Awards.”

“Our development staff works closely with science teachers to develop products that will excite and engage their students,” said Mark Meszaros, Vice President of Carolina Biological’s Core Product Management and Innovation. “I am grateful that we were able to address these difficult to teach topics and be recognized by our peers in science education.”

“This recognition highlights Carolina’s dedication to fostering inclusive and effective learning environments that empower students in science and STEM, said Karen Stevens, Vice President of Carolina Biological’s Curriculum. “This is the second Best of STEM award for Building Blocks of Science® 3D, which reinforces Carolina’s commitment to support all students by ensuring that language barriers do not hinder students’ opportunities to excel. And we’re thrilled that Smithsonian Science for the Classroom™ was recognized for Most Comprehensive Culturally Relevant Teaching. Developed with support from the Smithsonian Institution — the world’s largest cultural institution – culturally relevant teaching is crucial for engaging students from diverse backgrounds and making STEM subjects accessible to all.”

“We are thrilled and honored to receive the Educators Pick Best of STEM® 2023 Awards, ‘Trailblazer Award: Hybrid Learning Superhero’ for our groundbreaking Carolina Distance Learning product for college, Carolina Online Gateway, HyFlex,” said Shannon McGurk, Vice President of Carolina Biological’s Carolina Distance Learning. “This recognition reaffirms our commitment to revolutionizing education through innovation and hybrid learning solutions. Carolina Online Gateway represents a new era of educational tools, providing educators and students with a comprehensive platform designed to elevate the college distance learning experience.”

All four of Carolina’s winning products and the two finalists are available now through Carolina. For information, visit carolina.com or call (800) 334-5551 to speak to a customer service or technical representative.

Carolina’s 2023 Best-in-Class Winners:

The first winner, setting the standard in 3D learning and 3D assessment, is the Smithsonian Science for the Classroom curriculum. It provides cohesive storylines, superior teacher support, and research-supported instructional design that is backed by proven results. Smithsonian Science for the Classroom is a high-quality core science and engineering curriculum program specifically developed to meet the NGSS. This elementary curriculum is designed to engage, inspire, and connect grades K to 5 students firsthand to the world around them through engaging and hands-on lessons.

Next, Carolina Biological’s second winner, Building Blocks of Science 3D provides hands-on unit kits for students in grades K to 5. This complete, phenomena-based program combines interactive investigations, literacy components, and digital resources to teach students science content and investigative skills in manageable 30-minute lessons. The program also integrates engineering into every grade and includes everything teachers need for their entire class for every lesson with hands-on materials, print, and digital simulations.

In addition, the third winner, Carolina® Healthcare Simulations Kit Series: Blood Typing Kit, is a Career Technical Education (CTE) series that asks students to practice clinical skills, techniques, and procedures. While performing a series of investigations, in addition to gaining an understanding of human anatomy and physiology, students learn and practice skills that can be used in a healthcare setting using safe simulated samples. Each activity includes a case study that provides students with background information about a patient who presents with relevant symptoms. The series consists of Blood Hematocrit, Blood Glucose, Blood Typing, Urinalysis, and a Vital Signs Kit. More real-world CTE kits in the series are coming soon.

The fourth winner, Carolina Distance Learning® Online Gateway HyFlex, is for college level and includes lab kits and materials that produce great results for college students, at home or on campus. A HyFlex class allows students to attend class in person, synchronously online, or asynchronously online. That flexibility gives students the opportunity to attend class who, due to circumstances, might not otherwise be able to do so. It also gives institutions the opportunity to increase enrollment and the number of courses they can offer.

Back to School Resources for Fall ’23

Fire up that printer! Charge those devices! Brew that coffee! It’s back to school season everyone, and we’re sharing our top eight tech tips and resources to help you prep like a pro.

Most PASCO sensors and interfaces don’t require any maintenance, but a quick tune-up before school starts can help prevent surprises during class time.

Relevant Resources

Knowledge Base: Updating Firmware for Wireless Sensors and Interfaces

Video: Update the Firmware on a Wireless Sensor (Capstone)

Video: Pre-lab Prep for Chromebooks (SPARKvue)

Skip the chaos of in-class software updates by making sure your class devices are running the latest versions of SPARKvue (v4.9.1) or PASCO Capstone™ (v4.6.1) software prior to starting a lab.

SPARKvue

PASCO Capstone™

Whether you use laptops, Chromebooks, or desktop computers, updating to the latest Bluetooth driver helps ensure your PASCO sensors connect reliably to classroom devices.

Relevant Resources

Knowledge Base: Wireless Sensors not Detected on Windows with PS-3500 Adapter

Video: How to Determine the Bluetooth Version of My PASCO Device

Knowledge Base: How Do I Troubleshoot Connecting a Wireless Sensor?

Check that the sensors you’ll be using this year are in working condition. Replacement parts and consumables, such as electrodes and carbon paper, can be ordered through our website or by calling us at 877-967-2726.

Replacement parts and consumables are listed on the Buying Guide tab of their respective product pages. They can also be found by using the search bar at the top of the website.

Common Consumables	Replacement Parts
Coin Cell Battery Pack	pH Electrode
Carbon Paper	Soaker Bottle Replacement pH/ISE (5 Pack)
Field Mapper Kit	Replacement Cart Axles
pH Storage Solution	Replacement Jumper Clips (Modular Circuits)

Video Library

From full product guides to bite-size how-tos, the Video Library hosts a variety of media to help you maximize your PASCO solutions.

Software Help Guides

Bookmark these handy software guides for quick access to answers during class time. Each guide is fully searchable, making it easy to find step-by-step solutions for most software questions.

Knowledge Base

The Knowledge Base is a treasure trove of resources for your most specific product questions. It’s consistently updated by our Technical Support team and includes answers to all types of FAQs—both new and old!

PASCO Technical Support

When you need personalized, step-by-step guidance, reach out to Technical Support. Our friendly team members are here to help via chat, email, or phone call during business hours.

PASCO Wins Best of STEM for 2023 Educators Pick Awards

We are excited to share that three PASCO products have been chosen as Best of STEM Winners!

Educators Pick Best of STEM is a program designed to rank and award outstanding innovations in STEM education with educators as the judges. Winners are chosen through an aggregate vote based on the criteria for the product category.

This year, PASCO submitted three entries which all won their category! Read about each of them below, and also check out the press release by GlobeNewswire here featuring PASCO Academy and our Meter Stick Optics Complete System: Science Educators Name PASCO Scientific as Best of STEM in Two Categories.

PASCO Academy | Best of STEM: Video-Based Learning

PASCO Academy is a comprehensive library of digital hands-on resources for students both inside and outside the classroom. There are three versions: Physics Academy, Chemistry Academy, and Biology Academy.

PASCO Academy is designed to do some of the heavy lifting for science educators by providing digital curriculum, including activities and resources, that integrates with existing classroom lessons. With PASCO Academy, educators have access to a plethora of distance learning curriculum, virtual labs, data sets, and on-demand PD, enabling them to pick and choose which resources to utilize.

PASCO Academy supports student learning by having them not only study science, but also do science: Students gather their own data, conduct data analysis, and use downloadable resources like instructional videos to develop and support their conclusions. They can even share their collected data to multiple devices (or stream it live!) to collaborate with their peers, as scientists do.

The PASCO Academy provides distance learning video segments, including a weekly overview video, a virtual lab investigation with corresponding student activities, and a follow-up video that ties the week’s learning objectives together. Registered educators have access to the Academy Portal, where they can access a library of distance learning videos, student labs, sample data files, links to relevant information within the included Essential curriculum, and more.

E-learning, hybrid classes, student and teacher absences, and short class times can limit the amount of quality hands-on learning that science students are exposed to. PASCO Academy is comprehensive enough that you can have your substitute teacher run the lab, keeping your class schedule on track when you can’t be there.

Meter Stick Optics Complete System | Best of STEM: Physics

PASCO’s Meter Stick Optics Complete System encourages student observation, measurement, and analysis of optics, all in a compact and simple system.

Component holders easily attach to the meter stick and include an indicator window so students can accurately measure their position. Lenses are built into cases with holding tabs to prevent fingerprints and add durability when students interchange them between holders. The system includes a bright, rechargeable light source that can easily be seen in a lit classroom, and the viewing screens are designed so the projected image is bright and clear.

The system’s compact and durable design allows students to quickly and accurately maneuver components, making multiple investigations possible in the span of one class period.

Coding with Vehicle Sensor Technologies Kit | Trailblazer Award: Cross-Curricular Coding

The //code.Node is a revolutionary device that uses Blockly, sensors, and feedback to teach students coding skills and data literacy. The pocket-size coding solution includes encodable sensors for light, motion, sound, and magnetic fields, as well as a speaker, RGB light, and 5×5 LED array. Using PASCO software and the //code.Node, students can create custom experiments that range from simple data collection to advanced, measurement-based sensory feedback. As they execute their code, students collect real-time data and visual feedback that helps them improve with each activity.

The Coding with Vehicle Sensor Technologies Kit is geared towards new coders with a simple wireless design that uses block-based coding, allowing students to focus on the basics of programming without worrying about syntax. The //code.Node Cart has a spinning magnet on its wheels that the attachable //code.Node detects, allowing students to determine the cart’s distance and velocity. Five thorough investigations are included in the kit, featuring video lessons and student worksheets, all accessible through a convenient digital flipbook.

The //code.Node lets students go beyond computer animations to controlling output devices like speakers and LED lights, and the included activities integrate live data collection and analysis so students are challenged to observe, question, and retest their theories.

Fruit Battery Experiment

Using PASCO’s wireless voltage and current sensors, we conducted the fruit battery experiment. We tested 7 different kinds of produce to try and determine which one had the highest electric charge, and would make the best battery.

With these sensors you are able to chart and record voltage and current data right in SPARKvue! Then you can compare and contrast the data recorded across multiple different kinds of produce.

Using copper wire and a zinc coated nail, we connected an orange, clementine, lemon, lime, potato, sweet potato and apple to the sensors and charted their volts and milliamps.

We hypothesized that the lemon would have the highest voltage, due to the fact that it is an extremely acidic fruit. The lime is also an acidic fruit, so that was an alternate option that was considered. Due to the fact that the lemon was a larger fruit, and would maybe be able to hold more charge, we picked the lemon for our theorized winner.

We set the voltage and current sensors to the manual data sampling option so that we could choose when to record data and input it into the table when the voltage and amperage stabilized. We then made an incision in the fruits to insert the copper wire, and pushed the zinc coated screw into the produce. With the citrus fruits, we needed to roll them on the table to get the juices flowing inside of it and gain more acid for the zinc to interact with, making the battery stronger. After connecting the sensors to SPARKvue, and connecting the negative and positive wires to their proper nodes, we were able to record data for all 7 items into the chart. With SPARKvue we could measure, record, and compare data all in one place.

What may seem like similar results between all the produce is far from ambiguous as by nature the results will be similar between the produce, but there are still outliers that stand out. This experiment allows students to engage in a fun activity by hypothesizing which produce would be the best battery. It makes for a perfect opportunity for your student scientists to strengthen their critical thinking skills and increase their scientific knowledge on electricity!

To advance upon this already fascinating experiment, try connecting an LED in series or in parallel, and see how many fruits it takes to light it up! Have students experiment and determine the best approach to make the LED nice and bright! You can connect multiple LEDS, and multiple fruits, and even compare your voltage and amperage after powering an LED to see if anything has changed!

How The Battery Works

The specifics of the science behind fruit batteries is similar for all types of produce, in using the transfer of negative electrons for creating an electrical current. Specifically in the case of the lemon, it reacts with the zinc and loosens electrons. Copper pulls electrons more strongly than zinc, so negative electrons will move towards the copper when the electrodes are connected by wires, while the positive electrons remain inside the fruit. Moving electrons are called an electric current, so when the electrons move through the wires a charge is detected!

Materials Used:

PS-3212 Wireless Current Sensor
PS-3211 Wireless Voltage Sensor
Fruit Battery Experiment Guide
Lemon, Lime, Orange, Clementine, Apple, Potato, Sweet Potato
Copper Wire
Zinc Coated Nail

Growing Tomatoes With the Greenhouse Sense & Control Kit

Over the last couple of months, AYVA Educational Solutions has been growing tomato plants from the Let’s Talk Science Tomatosphere project. In this project, you are given two unknown packets of seeds, labeled T and U. One packet of seeds have been to space, while the other has not. The purpose of this experiment is to germinate and grow the tomato plants from both packets, tracking their growth, and hypothesizing which plants are the space seeds! You can guess which ones you think are the space seeds in the survey at the bottom of this post! Submit your hypothesis and you will automatically be entered into a raffle to win a free PASCO Wireless Temperature Sensor! If you would like to find out which seeds have been to space we encourage you to participate in this fantastic program!! Sign up for your own packet of seeds here.

We used PASCO’s ST-2997 Greenhouse Sense and Control Kit to monitor and regulate conditions for optimal growth! By researching the optimal growing conditions for a tomato plant, we adjusted the levels of the greenhouse system to meet those needs.

Using Blockly, we block coded the Greenhouse conditions we desired, programming a 24 hour sunlight and watering cycle, and ensuring the temperature stayed at 23 degrees Celsius at all times. Once the code was exported into the //control.Node, we planted 3 seeds from each packet on the appropriate sides (T or U).

We tracked the growth of our plants from January 20th to March 31st, as they developed, they went from seeds to leafy plants.

After just one week of being inside the Greenhouse, three out of six seeds germinated and sprouted! As a couple more weeks went by, two more seeds sprouted. Unfortunately, one seed (on the T side) did not germinate. Overall totaling three plants on the U side, two on the T side. At this point, we hypothesized which of the seeds had been to space and which had not, and wrote down our predictions to compare to the results later on. You can share your predictions in the survey at the bottom of this post, and find out which seeds were the space seeds!

In the fourth week of growth we decided to name the plants so that they could be more easily identified, charted, and referred to. On the U side, we named the tomato plants Tennessee, Toby, and Tiny Tim. Then on the T side, we named the plants Thiara and Theodore. Tiny Tim was the smallest plant during the beginning of the growth period, while Tennessee was the largest of the seedlings. Thiara also germinated the latest of any of the seeds, excluding the one seed that never sprouted. She quickly caught up to the others though, and in the 4th week she was the 3rd tallest of them.

After 6 weeks of growth, the plants were beginning to falter as they combatted against one another for nutrients and water. To replenish what they lost, we decided to separate the plants. Three of the plants, Tennessee, Tiny Tim and Thiara were moved to their own pots. However, Toby and Theodore remained in the self-regulating greenhouse to continue identical conditions. Within days of separating the plants, they all began to look healthier as they received the nutrients and space that they needed.

Into the ninth week of the experiment, the plants are growing taller and broader. Now that they each have their own space, they are able to thrive. The featured photo on the right shows Tennessee healthy and strong! With no one contesting him for nutrients, he is tall, green and healthy. At this point, they are almost fully mature, and will be entering the flowering stage shortly. This week we decided to reveal the answer to the lingering question we had been wondering for months – which seeds had been to space? Was it Theodore and Thiara (T Side)? Or perhaps did Toby, Tiny Tim and Tennessee (U side) spend some time in space? Find out the answer below!

Shoutout to the PASCO Greenhouse, as this project could not have been as successful without it! The self-regulating greenhouse allowed us to grow the plants healthy and strong -with minimal intervention from us. We were able to germinate 5/6 seeds and maintain the ideal moisture and temperature levels for the plants to grow, even amidst a cold and dark winter with many days out of the office. PASCO’s Greenhouse is the perfect educational kit for your classroom, teaching students several ecological concepts such as photosynthesis, anatomy of plants, and the ways different conditions affect the growth of plants – all with the new focus and importance of coding. You can start the Tomatosphere project yourself, and facilitate it with the Greenhouse Sense and Control Kit as well.

Make sure to answer the survey below to find out which seeds have been to space and for a chance to win a PASCO Wireless Temperature Sensor! We would love to hear what you think, so share your guesses with us, and your reasoning if you have any!

Wireless Sensors are Now Stocked in Oakville!

Here are just a few of the products currently available! If you need something quickly, please give us a call @ 877-967-2726. We can ship across Canada for delivery within a few days for all Canadian stocked items.

Also in-stock & on sale!!

Many of PASCO’s wireless sensors are now stocked in Oakville, Ontario.

Smart Carts
Red: ME-1240
Blue: ME-1241

Wireless pH Sensor
PS-3204

Wireless Light Sensor
PS-3213

Wireless Temperature Sensor
PS-3201

Wireless Sound Sensor
PS-3227

Wireless EKG Sensor
PS-3236

Wireless Spirometer
PS-3234

Wireless Force Sensor
PS-3202

Wireless Soil Moisture Sensor
PS-3228

Airlink
PS-3200

Wireless Acceleration Sensor
PS-3223

Wireless Colorimeter
PS-3215

Wireless Pressure Sensor
PS-3203

Wireless Rotary Motion Sensor
PS-3220

Wireless Temperature Link
PS-3222

Wireless Conductivity Sensor
PS-3210

Connecting Ontario’s New Science Curriculum to PASCO’s STEM Sense Products

To some degree, all technology today includes coding. With coding becoming more relevant than ever, Ontario science courses are now integrating coding into the curriculum.

The Ontario Grade 9 science curriculum states:

Coding environments allow for rapid ideating, prototyping, testing, and evaluating as students refine and debug their projects.

One way students can apply these skills is through robotics. The PASCObot is a fun way to teach students about data, robotics, programming, and sense and control. Using Blockly coding, students can make the PASCObot move, navigate and avoid objects, follow a line or path, and many more. The PASCObot encourages students to problem solve and overcome challenges to achieve a goal.

In the Ontario Grade 9 science course, a key goal is:

Providing students with the skills and knowledge required to apply engineering design processes to help find solutions to complex problems.

The //control.Node Sense & Control Kit includes materials and instructions for six projects that use elements of the engineering design process to turn on lights, run a cooling fan, open doors, launch rubber bands, and more. The activities allow students to gain skills in designing, building, and problem-solving by writing and executing code.

I had the opportunity of trying two of the projects associated with the kit:

In the Engineering a Winch activity, students engineer a device that can lift and place down an object. In this activity, you start by putting together a pulley device using a winch wheel and a high-speed stepper motor. By measuring the circumference of the wheel, you can calculate the number of rotations required to move the string and magnet a certain distance to pick up a paperclip. Using Blockly coding, students have to find a way to program the wheel to rotate according to the measurements taken.

The Nightlight activity teaches students how coding with loops and conditions can be used in a real-life setting. By covering the light sensor on the //code.Node, students can analyze how brightness is affected by looking at the live data on SPARKvue. This provides students with data that they can interpret to create code that will turn the light bulb on when brightness is below a certain percentage.

A key change in the biology portion of the Grade 9 science curriculum is:

Students will have an opportunity to learn about the many factors that contribute to ecosystem sustainability, including soil health, air and water quality, biodiversity, and succession.

The Greenhouse Sense & Control Kit provides experiments that encourage students to gain hands-on experience in each of these topics. Students can design, build, program, and study their very own greenhouse.

In our experience with the Greenhouse Sense & Control Kit, we decided to design an environment for a Ring of Fire Pepper Plant. We had to research conditions that would be essential for the plant to grow. This included factors such as relative humidity, temperature, soil moisture, hours of sunlight, and how much water it needs each week. The Greenhouse Sense & Control kit provides the materials for students to design the greenhouse for the plants’ needs. Through code, you can program a fan, grow light, and irrigation system to provide the optimal conditions for your plant. This teaches students how changes due to soil, water, air, and temperature in an ecosystem can affect a plant’s growth in good and bad ways. The activities provided by this kit allow students to learn about ecosystem sustainability firsthand and in real-time.

PASCO Wins Two Best of STEM Awards

Originally posted on pasco.com July 21, 2022.

Educators chose the PASCO Meter Stick Torque Set as the 2022 winner for Best of STEM: Physics and PASCO’s STEM Sense & Control Kits for Best of STEM: Engineering.

We are thrilled to share that the PASCO Meter Stick Torque Set and STEM Sense & Control Kits have been named winners of the 2022 Educators Pick Best of STEM^™ Awards! This year’s competition was stiff, and it is an honor to have our innovations recognized by the program’s distinguished educator judges. Check out highlights from their reviews below!

PASCO has reinvented the Meter Stick Torque Kit into a core piece of equipment in the STEM toolkit. The Meter Stick Torque Set is integrated with all of PASCO’s other products (and others by other manufacturers), and has various online experiments, videos, and teacher resources, so that it can easily be incorporated into lesson plans.

– Judge, Educators Pick Best of STEM Awards

PASCO’s STEM Sense & Control connects students to the science and engineering of tomorrow. Smart homes are becoming increasingly more sophisticated, and through the use of the STEM Sense & Control [line], students can learn by designing their own engineering products. It’s real-world learning for today’s connected students.

– Judge, Educators Pick Best of STEM Awards

Our First Experience with the PASCObot

Coming out of our second year of Engineering at the University of Guelph, we have a newly developed appreciation for working with laboratory equipment. Having missed out on much of our in person labs throughout first year due to the pandemic, we have truly enjoyed being able to interact with the lab equipment this school year in our Fluid Mechanics and Material Science Courses.

This past week, we got to unbox and assemble PASCO’s new PASCObot Sense and Control Kit, giving us an introduction to robotics and simple block coding. We started by assembling the PASCObot body using the instructions. The assembly consisted of screwing on the High Speed Stepper Motors and the wheels. This was followed by plugging in the wires of the motors to the //control.node, screwing in the hold-down and the top frame as shown. The instructions were easy to follow and the box contained everything needed including the screwdriver. Within the kit, there are multiple attachments designed for different applications and activities.

The first attachment we tested was the Gripper, shown in the photo on the left, which consists of two servo motors which attached to the //control.node. These motors allowed the Gripper to open and close its jaws as well as angle them up or down according to the given code. This was an interesting experiment that demonstrated several experimental applications of the PASCObot. For instance, setting up the code was quite simple. In the instructions, it explains how to get started with SPARKvue. The //control.node connects to the software using Bluetooth. The code is presented in a block-like manner, each instruction being in the shape of a puzzle piece. All you have to do is drag one of the puzzle pieces from the Code tool or import them from the PASCO code library, connecting them from top to bottom in the order you want them to function. Each block/puzzle piece states exactly what you want it to do. For example, to make the PASCObot move forward 50 cm, you would select the block “moveADistance with: _ cm” from the PASCO code library and type 50. Students may need a demonstration on how to navigate the code tool however, we were able to figure it out quickly, without having any previous experience with SPARKvue.

This inspired us to film a short clip in which the PASCObot would move a certain distance, turn left, grab a cup of water, turn right, and bring this cup to us. We started by measuring and marking a course then coding the robot using the measurements taken, as shown in the image on the right. We were able to successfully complete this task without spilling any water, and this allowed us to become more familiar with the system.

We then moved on to using the Range Finder Module, shown in the image on the left. This accessory was attached in the front of the PASCObot with two screws. A wire was then used to connect the Range Finder Module to the //control.node. The Range Finder Module uses infrared light to detect the distance from the PASCObot to objects. We followed the “Roving with Sight with the PASCObot” experiment from the PASCO Experiment Library and used the sample code. The code allowed the PASCObot to move on its own, avoiding objects, reacting to its surroundings, and maneuvering around the office floor independently. We found working with the PASCObot super cool and we are excited to try out more experiments.

The Increased Importance of Coding Education in Today’s Digital World

Are you reading this blog on a digital device or computer? Did you drive anywhere today and pass a stop light? Maybe you had a recent doctor’s appointment and needed the use of a medical device? If the answer is “yes” to any of these questions, then you have been impacted by the technology filled world we are now living in. In this digital world, coding has become a basic literacy and it is crucial for kids and young people to be able to understand and work with the technology around it. After all, it will not become an invaluable skill anytime soon.

I am a third-year Biomedical Engineering student at the University of Guelph, and I have experienced first-hand the effects of coding education, or possibly the lack thereof, and understand why it is so essential that this topic is taught before college or university. Entering my first year of university, I had no prior knowledge of almost any basic coding skills. During this year, I was required to take my first ever computer science course: Introduction to Programming. With not much background knowledge, plus the pre-existing lack of confidence with being a first year student, this class became quite intimidating. Beyond that one course, I also had to complete a first year engineering design project, and as I’m sure you can guess, coding was needed for that too. See I told you it wasn’t going anywhere. Again, during this project, with little knowledge of coding and its applications, trying to program a mini robot became more than a challenge.

Despite the frustration and lack of understanding myself and so many other students feel, there is a solution that exists! Now more than ever, it is evident that coding concepts and applications need to be taught in school if we want our future engineers, web developers, computer programmers, and a huge portion of the next generation to succeed. Instead of teaching students a specific coding language, the greatest benefit we can give them is education on foundational coding concepts because this will provide them with diverse knowledge and transferable skills. When we talk about teaching coding to highschool or elementary students, we aren’t asking them to build an entire app, but instead to begin to understand basic coding topics. Some of these topics include algorithms, variables, functions, control elements and coding applications. The //code.Node from PASCO paired with Blockly Coding is the perfect answer we are looking for to fill this gap in coding education!

Blockly is a programming software, integrated within SPARKvue, that provides students with a visual method for developing strong coding foundations, without having to worry about their syntax. Students are able to simply drag and connect coloured coding blocks that correlate with correct coding elements to cover essential concepts, such as variables, commands and loops. To advance coding education even further, it is important for students to not only understand the basic concepts, but also learn about programming applications, including sensors and the code that controls them. The //code.Node and all PASCO Wireless Sensors can be used with Blockly coding, to bring these applications to life.

To put these tools to the test, I used Blockly and the Wireless Temperature Sensor to perform a lab activity from PASCO’s experiment library, where I developed a program to test the efficiency of two different light bulbs.

Constructing the code for this experiment was made very simple with Blockly. I was easily able to browse through the different elements, such as logic components, loops, variables and functions, and drag and connect them together as I was building. The goal of this program was to use the Temperature Sensor or //code.Node to determine the temperature of each light bulb. If the temperature was less than or equal to 27 degrees celsius, then the program output displayed “higher efficiency”. Furthermore, if the temperature was above 27 degrees celsius, the output for the bulb displayed “lower efficiency”.

Just in this one simple exercise, I was able to learn about coding elements, such as while loops, if else statements, retrieving inputs, displaying outputs and more! Not only did I create a program, but I also had the opportunity to put my code to use with the PASCO Wireless Temperature Sensor, seeing a real-world application of programming.

Incorporating exercises like these, both simple ones and more advanced, is the easiest and most beneficial way to bring coding and its applications into the classroom. Whether that classroom is physics, chemistry, biology, environmental, computer science, or robotics, Blockly coding and the //code.Node are designed to fit in perfectly. Understanding computers and learning the basics of coding, has numerous other benefits for students as well, including developing problem solving skills and teaching them how to think. Computer programming isn’t just about teaching how to type lines of code. It is more about teaching how to think differently. Students will be able to use computational thinking, to see a large problem and break it down into smaller pieces in order to solve it in an effective manner. With tools such as the //code.Node and Blockly, there is no reason that coding cannot be implemented into our education. Together, let’s make sure that we set our students up for success in the technology driven future that we are entering.