In this project school-related experiments with smartphones regarding environmental education are developed, tested and established. Pupils are now able to measure air pollution, noise nuisance, radioactivity as well as the contamination of biological substances with heavy metals by themselves and to select and evaluate the results. Training for teachers is provides as well to ensure an ideal link of the project to school teaching.

By using smartphones or tablet PCs environmental impacts indiscernible to human senses, such as radioactivity or air pollution, can be measured and analysed at any time and place.

More than 90 % of adolescents in Germany own a smartphone. In the DBU-funded project iNature the internal sensors of the devices, such as camera, microphone and illuminance sensor are used to measure physical data and to retrieve the data with supplementary applications. These sensors and measuring systems enable qualitative and quantitative experiments. Thus smartphones can be used as small, transportable and mobile measurement laboratories for experimentation in natural science classes and especially in environmental education.

Project implementation:
Technische Universität Kaiserslautern Fachbereiche Elektro- und Informationstechnik, Maschinenbau und Verfahrenstechnik und Physik

Project participants: 
PD Dr. habil. B. Hauck,
Prof. Dr. J. Kuhn, Prof. Dr. R. Ulber

Contact person:
Herr Prof. Dr. Jochen Kuhn
Erwin-Schrödinger-Str. 46
67663 Kaiserslautern
Telefon: 0631 205-2393
Telefax: 0631 205-3677
kuhn@physik.uni-kl.de
www.physik.uni-kl.de/inature/home/



AZ 31993