Except, for some reason, simple fan carts.
The traditional PASCO fan cart (the second picture) has been a workhorse for me for years. It doesn't break through normal use, at least not until a half-life of like 10 years. I like that it charges rather than uses batteries. I like that the fan can turn 360 degrees. It is fantastic. It's old, but great.
What about fan attachments?
These are battery operated. They have three speeds accessible simply by clicking one button. It can do so much advanced stuff if you hook it to the smartcart and use sparkvue; but for AP physics 1 or conceptual physics, all I want is a simple fan, so this is great.
The attachments can't rotate, which is fine - that's why I have the traditional fan cart too, rather than just attachments.
But the *old* PASCO fan attachment came with a bar on which MULTIPLE fans could sit. I loved doing the demo in which I had two carts pushing left and one pushing right... and asking how the cart could nevertheless move to the right. With the ability to put three separate attachments on a single cart, we could do a straight-up netF = ma experiment with constant mass, by using different total numbers of batteries (up to 12 total!) in the fans, thus varying the net force, and measuring acceleration with a motion detector. I also used to put the old fan attachment on top of the visual accelerometer, on top of a dumbcart, and you could still see the lights indicating the direction of acceleration.
The new attachment works fine, but is incompatible with multiple fans at once, and incompatible with either the old or new visual accelerometer.
I'd love to hear, in the comments, your experience with newer fan carts. Is there a product out there I'm missing?
I came to teaching physics with no education background but a lot of physics background in 2006. I was given what I thought was a highly equipped lab. There were no fan carts. I had never seen a fan cart or heard of one in all the many courses I took or taught until ~2018. I have the newer PASCO ones that you show here. I have done some linking of the carts with the velcro in order to make fans work together or in opposition (I suspect I don't understand how you linked the old ones). I teach circuits before mechanics, so the number of batteries has a very clear meaning for my students. All this to say, fan carts are fun and very useful, but possibly not essential? I suspect being able to rotate the fan would be great for driving home the independence of x and y. My newer PASCO carts with fan attachments are holding up pretty well. I bet if we ask nicely, PASCO will take our money to bring back something with a fan that can turn.
ReplyDeleteHave you tried looking for 3d printed parts that could help solve your issues? I searched a couple sites and saw some designs that might be a good fit for you, with some modification.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed working with the Smart Fan accessory for the Smart Cart. The ability to trigger its action using Smart Cat sensor data opens up a lot of possibilities. Programming its actions with the Blockly code tool built-in to SPARKvue and Capstone is highly engaging. The new design does not easily accommodate your needs, but I think you can make it work for all or most of them. The Smart Fan accessory works without connecting its cord to the Smart Cart. I was able to connect 2 of them to a cart and it worked well. We usually Velcro 2 carts together and have one on each, but this arrangement should allow you to have a third fan on the second cart. If you don't plug them into the Smart Cart, you can connect the new Smart Cart Vector Display and Velcro it to the side of a fan. I didn't fully check that out but it seemed to work, vibration might be an issue. The old vector display you have might Velcro to the top of the fans. Another option is to use the Smart Cart accelerations to display the direction of acceleration on a screen. I wrote a Blockly activity that does this:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.pasco.com/resources/lab-experiments/1177/85
We also have a file for a 3D printed attachment that lets you rotate the fan:
https://www.pasco.com/resources/diy/224
Dan Burns
PASCO scientific
(where we are a fan of the Smart Fan)
The big problem I'd always had with Pasco fans is their fragility. One kid accidentally knocks it over, the old plastic covering would practically explode. Nowadays we're using clip-on battery operated fans from Amazon that were made for camping (search "Treva 5 inch fan" and it should come up). They're chunky, awkward (often we'll have to add something to the carts to clip them onto), and the clips are a little fragile, but they're a quarter the cost of the new Pascos, so they're also a no brainer. Oh, and as a bonus, they can adjust to any angle we please.
ReplyDelete