Physics with Phones: Innovative Learning from the Palm of the Hand
Adia Pinski, a biological sciences pre-medical student, conducts an experiment on hand tremors.
March 2025 / NEWS STORY
by Nick Wilson
Ever wonder about the jittery effects of an energy drink? Or the distance you cover with your natural gait?
Using smartphones and innovative physics curriculum designed by a Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory senior scientist, Cal Poly students are collecting and recording data related to motion, force, energy and other dynamical quantities of physics in exciting new ways.
Merging technology, biology and physics, Cal Poly Physics Department Chair Jennifer Klay collaborated in the fall with Lawrence Livermore’s Dave Rakestraw to tailor new “Physics with Phones” curriculum for Physics 125, an introductory lab course that’s required for pre-health and pre-veterinarian students.
“Physics with Phones” lesson plans and related artificial intelligence applications have the potential to be applied in K-12 classrooms and colleges globally. The introductory lab is required for pre-healthcare and pre-veterinarian students, and the use of the innovative smartphone curriculum has been adopted into Physics 125 on an ongoing basis.
Benefits of applying common smartphones include saving money on equipment costs and reaching even more students at Cal Poly and at K-12 and college campuses worldwide.
“Researchers spend hundreds of thousands of dollars for equipment in very controlled lab settings,” Klay said. “Physics using phones can achieve the same results, even better calculations in some cases, and provide the opportunity to innovate both inside and outside the classroom.”
A 'Physics with Phones” activity shows collected data.
Photo by Alexis Kovacevic.
Students — who frequently use their devices for catching the latest on Instagram, Snapchat and Netflix — now are diverting their attention to investigate friction, collisions, torque, acceleration and more using the familiar device that sits in the palms of their hands.
Physics 125 experiments include measuring changes in hand tremors before and after students voluntarily consumed energy drinks. Students learn how to assess the details of their walking mechanics based on foot motions and angles, techniques that can be applied in healthcare and veterinary science.
“Physics with Phones was a fascinating lab because it demonstrated how accessible and powerful modern technology has become in scientific experimentation,” said Adia Pinski, a biological sciences major and pre-medical student from Kirkland, Washington. “Using just a smartphone, we were able to collect and analyze real-time data in ways that were previously limited to specialized equipment. This experience not only deepened my understanding of physics concepts but also highlighted how mobile technology is transforming the way we conduct experiments, making science more interactive and accessible.”
Common iPhones, Androids and tablets are built with sensors to support applications for navigation, gaming, photography, talking, and listening to music. These sensors include accelerometers, gyroscopes, pressure transducers, microphones, light detectors, speakers, and GPS sensors that can be applied in physics experiments. Lab activities are designed so that each student is responsible for individual measurements with their own smartphone or a class loaner.
Free apps that are available to anyone, such as the physics-focused “phyphox,” allow access to almost all the sensor data which can be graphed in real-time and exported in common formats such as Excel or CSV files for students to analyze on their computers.
“I was extremely interested in the way our phones were integrated into our physics laboratory,” said Zane Sieger, a fourth-year biological sciences major and pre-medical student from San Diego. “I think we severely underestimate the amount of technology and physics that our phones use. I believe that other Cal Poly students will enjoy coming into lab each week and integrating a device so familiar to us as I did.”
Besides physics instruction, which will continue to use the curriculum at Cal Poly, other disciplines such as kinesiology and engineering may incorporate the technology in the classroom, saving cost for purchases of expensive sensors commonly used in labs.
“Students really learn about science and engineering not just by being lectured to and solving problems in the back of the book but by really being involved in experimental investigations and hands-on learning,” Rakestraw said.
Additionally, Klay and Rakestraw are collaborating to apply artificial intelligence (Chat GPT) to analyze complex sets of data, recorded by phones, that otherwise would be too challenging for early-stage physics students to assess on their own.
“We were able to use AI to write a natural language prompt that otherwise would be too complex for an introductory physics lab,” Klay said. “The same algorithm is taught in advanced physics curriculum, and in electrical engineering. We can use this technology to educate novice students without overwhelming them.”
Klay, Rakestraw and five students, including Sieger and Pinski, have written a manuscript draft they plan to publish in the American Association of Physics Teachers’ physics education journal about using AI to enhance the learning experience in an introductory lab. They examined how AI helped to identify hand tremor vibration frequencies as well as illustrate the extension of the AI approach to analysis of other periodic waveforms such as sound waves.
As he continues to spread the word on Physics with Phones and AI technology, both remotely and in person, Rakestraw hopes that K-12 and college campuses globally will adopt the tools to advance science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education.
“I’ve presented at teacher conferences, led student workshops, taught individual labs at Fresno State and Historically Black College and University (HBCU) campuses, but this class with Dr. Klay was the first time teaching a full course using this technology and designed lessons,” Rakestraw said. “There’s 7 billion of these phones out there, and they are incredible devices to learn from.”
Cal Poly students commented in a survey after the fall lab about the benefits of Physics with Phones, with one student noting: “I like that I am able to understand more about emerging technology related to healthcare.”
Another stated: “I think the implementation of this in vet med could be amazing since the patients can’t talk or tell us when something feels off.”
Yet another student said: “Tremors run in my family! I was interested to see about my own. I was learning about gait in my animal science classes before this. Super fun to connect the two.”
Cal Poly physics Professor Matt Moelter discusses data. Photo by Alexis Kovacevic
