Schools using the CTL Education Chromebook will soon be able to use a powerful free lab app to help make science lessons more engaging.
Intel’s Education Lab Camera Chrome App, made by Intellisense, is being made available to all schools and students using the CTL Education Chromebook.
The app will take full advantage of the device’s novel 180 degree rotating web camera and should help teachers enrich STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) curriculum activities without needing to spend limited resources on buying additional laboratory instruments or hardware.
“We think that The CTL Education Chromebook delivers the highest Return on Investment for a school’s IT budget,” says Jeremy Burnett, CTL’s Director of IT and Engineering.
The Briefcase Chromebook
The ruggedised CTL Education Chromebook launched last summer with a ruggedised design built to withstand the classroom. It also features a child-friendly carry handle as part of the clamshell design.
One of the standout features of the device is its rotatable web camera with optional snap-on lens for 30x magnification. This was designed to ‘support scientific inquiry’. With the Lab Camera app, those possibilities are levelled up.
“A student can rotate the camera away to record a science experiment or capture video of other students doing a skit or presenting a report. A student can rotate the camera up to closely examine a leaf. The integrated microphone also rotates with the camera to better capture sound.”
The Lab Camera app offers a number of key curriculum supporting modes:
- Time lapse cam — e.g., record natural processes over time
- Kinematics — e.g., record and graph movements
- Microscope — e.g., look at objects in more detail
- Pathfinder — e.g., detect patterns between objects
- Motion cam — e.g., record movements
- Universal logger — e.g., digitize any instrument with a digital, radial-dial, or fluid-based display
It’s not clear how much Intel typically charge educators to access the “app”, which is also made available on Windows and Android, but there’s no denying that making it available to Chromebooks is a definite boon.