Traditional physics labs in high school suffer from slow data acquisition so that some dynamic behavior of variables could be hidden from students. Modern electronic devices such as Lego Mindstorms NXT, smartphones and Arduino can acquire data at a fast rate and can be used to measure dynamic variables with reasonable precision in physics experiments. A case in point is the changing angle of a pendulum experiment. With a tool called InduLab, students in three groups using the mobile devices mentioned above in pendulum experiments collected data and built their models with the data. Experimental results showed that the Arduino group achieved the highest success rate of building correct models, followed by the smartphone group and then the NXT group. The results indicate that modern lowcost electronic devices can be used to improve physics labs in high school.

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There has been an ongoing debate of which physical labs or virtual labs are better. To resolve this issue, a remote lab provides an online lab that can do real experiments to obtain real data from a distant physical lab. Instead of relying on a remote lab, this article suggests that students collect experimental data locally with low-cost data loggers and then model the data with a web tool that provides scaffold support like a remote lab or virtual lab. In this study, 32 tenth-grade students ran physics labs and collected data with NXT, smartphones, and digital video recorder. This study investigates how a web tool assists in data visualization, hypothesis generation, hypothesis testing, and regulation of the discovery process. Results indicated the students became more sensitive in applying strategies of parameter tuning and backtracking. Questionnaire responses indicated the students found such physical labs to be satisfying.