And the winners of the “What can you teach with LabVIEW” contest are...

[Steve.J]

Some of you may know that National Instruments is involved in promoting STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) education in high schools and even earlier through partnerships with LEGO and the FIRST LEGO League, and Project Lead The Way. We recently ran a contest inviting high school teachers to showcase  innovative ways that they are integrating LabVIEW into labs, lesson  plans, and projects. Well, the winners have just been announced and I'm happy to see that two of the top six submissions had biomedical themes!

Take a few minutes to check out the winning videos and all of the other stellar submissions, posted at the links provided below.

1st Place: TCEA Robotics Competition - Darren Wilson (Guthrie High School)
Video Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pr1fdwToKl8
Course: Web Mastery
Grade Level: 9-12
Hardware Used:  LEGO MINDSTORMS
Judge Comments:  We chose this one because it did a great job showcasing what the students took away from their initial experience with LabVIEW and aptly and succinctly captures the value LabVIEW brings to Darren’s classroom.  This video clearly communicates what students learned from the project (from the student’s perspective) and demonstrates what a novice can pick up in a very short time period.  We loved hearing Darren’s perspective on why he likes LabVIEW. Congrats!

2nd Place: Traffic Light Loudness Indicator - Nelson Nunalee (Ravenscroft School)
Video Link:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DS3Cugw0qBg
Course: Honors Engineering
Grade Level: 11-12
Hardware Used:  National Instruments SPEEDY-33
Judge Comments:  Very creative project idea and well-produced video.  Loved seeing each of the students articulate their understanding how the program they created work.  Great examples of how the students each customized their front panel and took a slightly different approach to solving the problem.

3rd Place: Computed Tomography Scanner – Ralf Widenhorn, Justin Dunlap, Elliot Mylott, Ryan Klepetka  (Portland State University)
Video Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQ_KgU42uRU
Course: Physics
Grade Level: 12
Hardware Used: Vernier Photogate, Rotary Motion Sensor, and LabPro
Judge Comments:  What an incredible project idea.  Who would imagine that high school kids could be able to do something like this in their Physics lab?! One thing we really liked about this video was how clearly the teaching concepts were called out and woven throughout the lab (geometry, trigonometry, biology, anatomy).

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HONORABLE MENTION

Harmonics Lab – William Cragoe  (Sacred Heart-Griffin High School)
Video Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hleNCiE2aNo
Course: Engineering
Grade Level: 11-12
Hardware Used: National Instruments SPEEDY-33

Heart Rate Monitor with Audible Alarm – Dominic Audia and Doug Herman (Iowa City West High School)
Video Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lP4I6HbpQIA
Course: Biomedical Engineering
Grade Level: 10-12
Hardware Used: Vernier Hand Grip Heart Rate Monitor, Vernier sensorDAQ

Singing Magnets – Rebecca Morrison (Runnels School)
Video Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rgs95LdHZWc
Course: AP Physics
Grade Level: 11-12
Hardware Used: Vernier SensorDAQ, Go! Link, LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT, or National Instruments Speedy-33; variety of sensors