From Theory to Practice; Leveraging Smartphone Capabilities for Field Trip Data Acquisition and Dissemination

Without question, educational field trips can facilitate student learning and also provide a high degree of student engagement. Field studies are especially well suited examining the chemical processes of the everyday world. Todays’ smartphones come packed with technological advancements, which can be employed to aid in the collection and distribution of information. Their capabilities are especially well suited for real world environmental sampling associated with classroom field trips. Using appropriate applications and, or web browsers, they also provide an apt means for sharing collected data in real time. This paper outlines the means of harnessing cellphone technology to augment field sampling for chemical laboratory class field trips. Our specific example is for the characterization of local on surface and ground water, yet it could easily be adapted for studies of a wide range environmental data collection.