Teacher Demonstration
Use the live model as a shared screen demonstration before students try their own predictions and observations.
Physics / Waves
Data Logger:
Explore Data Logger: as an interactive EJS simulation for waves and optics.
1. Watch or Launch
Launch the Interactive
Open the simulation, adjust the controls, and compare what changes on screen before answering the concept-check questions.
2. Big Ideas
Key idea Accuracy is closeness to the true value, while precision is closeness of repeated readings to one another. The simulation can help students separate systematic error from random spread.
What Students Can Learn
- Distinguish accuracy from precision.
- Recognise repeated readings as evidence of spread.
- Connect systematic bias to accuracy problems.
- Use mean and range where appropriate.
Guiding Question
Are the readings close to the true value, close to each other, or both?
3. Try the Investigation
Compare to the True Value
Decide whether the readings are centred near the accepted value.
Compare the Spread
Look at how tightly repeated readings group together.
Name the Error Type
Discuss whether the problem looks systematic, random, or both.
Improve the Measurement
Suggest calibration, repeated readings, or better technique depending on the error pattern.
4. Teacher Notes
Lesson Use
Use the model to break the habit of using accurate and precise as synonyms. Students should classify cases as accurate, precise, both, or neither.
Discussion Prompts
Ask: Can readings be precise but inaccurate? What would calibration improve? What would repeated readings improve?
Teaching Moves
Use target-board analogies only after students have described the numerical evidence, so the language stays tied to measurement data.
5. Concept Check
These questions are generated from the topic and the concept illustrated by the simulation. Use them after students have explored the model.
Concept Score
Correct first attempts build a streak and unlock higher point multipliers on this device.
0page points
0current streak
x1multiplier
0best streak
Answer each question once to build your streak.
1. What does accuracy mean?
2. What does precision mean?
3. Which error usually affects accuracy by shifting all readings?
4. Why repeat measurements?
5. What is a precise but inaccurate set?
Expert Challenge
Unlocks after 3 correct concept-check answers on this page.
1. A balance gives 10.42 g, 10.43 g, and 10.42 g for a 10.00 g standard. What is the best diagnosis?
2. A ruler has a zero mark worn away and every length is read 2 mm too large. What improvement targets the main problem?
3. Which evidence best separates random error from systematic error?
4. A set of readings has a small range but its mean is far from the accepted value. Which statement is strongest?
5. Which change is most likely to improve precision rather than accuracy?
7. Learning Pulse
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