Innovative Interactive Lecture Demonstrations Using Wireless Force Sensors and Accelerometers for Introductory Physics Courses

Interactive lecture demonstrations1–6 (ILDs) are a powerful tool designed to help instructors bring state‐of‐the‐art teaching pedagogies into the college‐level introductory physics classroom. ILDs have been shown to improve students' conceptual understanding, and many examples have been created and published by Sokoloff and Thornton.6 We have used the new technology of Vernier's Wireless Dynamics Sensor System (WDSS)7 to develop three new ILDs for the first‐semester introductory physics (calculus‐based or algebra‐based) classroom. These three are the Force Board, to demonstrate the vector nature of forces, addition of vectors, and the first condition of equilibrium; the Torque Board, to demonstrate torque and the second condition for equilibrium; and the Circular Motion Board, to discover the nature of the acceleration an object exhibiting uniform circular motion. With the WDSS, all three of these ILDs are easy to set up and use in any classroom or laboratory situation, and allow more instructors to utilize the technique of interactive lecture demonstrations.