Wireless smart devices having integrated force, position, acceleration, and rotational sensing for science education

An integrated wireless cart for collecting data that measures dynamic properties of the integrated wireless cart during a science experiment comprising:

• a motion device to generate motion data based on detecting a current rate of motion of the integrated wireless cart over a period of time;
• at least one axle to rotate a plurality of wheels;
• a shaft encoder to detect angular positional changes of the at least one axle over the period of time;
• and
• at least one processing device communicatively coupled to the motion device and the shaft encoder, the at least one processing device is configured to decode angular position data of the optical shaft encoder into positional data over the period of time and to time synchronize the motion data received from the motion device with the positional data decoded by the at least one processing device for the science experiment over the period of time.

A method for collecting data that measures dynamic properties of an integrated wireless device during a science experiment, the method comprising:

• generating, with an accelerometer of the integrated wireless device, acceleration data based on detecting a current rate of acceleration of the integrated wireless device over a period of time;
• detecting angular positional changes of a shaft or axle of the integrated wireless device over time using a shaft encoder over the period of time;
• decoding angular positional data into positional data of the integrated wireless device over the period of time with at least one processing device of the integrated wireless device;
• and synchronizing acceleration data received from the accelerometer with the positional data decoded by the at least one processing device for the science experiment over the period of time.