Phone Sensor Data in the Mathematics Classroom

Abstract

Recently, a new source of data with great potential for use in the mathematics classroom has become available. The smartphones in our pockets are packed with sensors. Most phones have at a minimum global positioning, accelerometer, magnetometer, and gyroscope sensors. We give an example of the collection and analysis of global positioning sensor (GPS) data. Specifically, we find the fastest mile in a smartphone recording of an ordinary jogging workout. All of the analysis is done with the free Jupyter/Python computing environment. This example can be used by an instructor knowledgeable in the use of Jupyter/Python to scaffold a GPS project for students in a laboratory calculus classroom. More broadly, via this example, we provide a framework for instructors to incorporate these kinds of easily accessible data projects into the mathematics classroom. We also encourage the collaborative development of other phone sensor projects via a github repository.

Keywords:

• Global positioning
• calculus
• Jupyter
• Python
• numerical analysis
• data collection
• project-based learning

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The author would like to thank his partner, Laura Schueller, for her editing advice. The article is better for it. In addition, the author, having no connection with them, thanks the developers of the Physics Toolbox Sensor Suite phone application. The application made the collection of raw phone sensor data easy.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Albert W. Schueller

Albert Schueller received his BS from Penn State University and his Ph.D. from the University of Kentucky. He has taught at Whitman College in Walla Walla, WA for more than 20 years. He has a long interest in the use of computation in the mathematics classroom and in the computational illustration of mathematical ideas. He is an advocate of the use of open-source software and open-source textbooks. In addition to teaching across the undergraduate mathematics curriculum, he also teaches classes in introductory computer programming and data structures. When not running with a phone strapped to his waist, he likes cycling and hiking. The inspiration for this particular article came while living in Sevilla, Spain for a year and running along the Guadalquivir River every morning.