Using the PASCO Differential Pressure Sensor to Measure Lung Function

Turning breathing into real data

One of the most powerful ways to make biology and physics feel real is to let students measure something that belongs to them. Lung function does exactly that — and with a PASCO Differential Pressure Sensor, it becomes a safe, visual and genuinely engaging classroom experiment.

This isn’t medical spirometry. It’s an educational model that helps students understand airflow, pressure differences, and how breathing mechanics relate to volume and health.

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What are we actually measuring?

When a student breathes in or out through a tube connected to the sensor:

• Airflow creates a pressure difference

• The sensor measures this tiny change in pressure

• Software plots a pressure–time graph

• With calibration, this can be related to relative lung volume and flow

The moment students see their own breath appear as a live graph, the lesson changes.

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Typical classroom setup

Equipment

• PASCO Differential Pressure Sensor

• Short length of flexible tubing

• Disposable mouthpiece (essential for hygiene)

• PASCO Capstone or SPARKvue software

Method

1. Student breathes normally for baseline data

2. Deep inhalation and slow exhalation

3. Faster breathing for comparison

4. Repeat after light exercise (stairs or star jumps)

Each run produces a clear, interpretable trace — perfect for discussion and analysis.

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Concepts this experiment brings together

This single setup crosses multiple syllabus areas:

Biology

• Ventilation

• Tidal volume

• Breathing rate

• Effect of exercise on respiration

Physics

• Pressure differences

• Flow rate

• Graph interpretation

• Rate of change

Maths

• Area under curves

• Gradients

• Comparing datasets

• Percentage change

It’s a rare experiment that genuinely earns its place across subjects.

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Why this works so well with students

• It’s personal — they are the data source

• Results are instant and visual

• No flames, chemicals or complex setup

• Easy to repeat and improve technique

• Naturally leads to “what if…?” questions

Students quickly start asking:

• Why are some traces smoother than others?

• Why does exercise change the curve?

• What limits lung capacity?

That curiosity is the real win.

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Safety and good practice

• Always use disposable mouthpieces

• Clean tubing between users

• Emphasise this is not a medical test

• No forced exhalation for students with asthma unless agreed

Handled properly, it’s a very low-risk, high-impact practical.

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Why I use this at Hemel Private Tuition

In my lab and studio-based lessons, this experiment works beautifully on camera. Students can:

• See the live graph

• Pause and analyse together

• Overlay multiple runs

• Link theory directly to evidence

It’s exactly the kind of practical that turns revision into understanding.

 

Capturing Subtle Colour Changes

Time-lapse and macro techniques for indicators and precipitates

In school and college chemistry, some of the most important moments are also the easiest to miss:
a faint pink endpoint, a cloudiness just beginning to form, or a slow colour drift that tells the real story of the reaction.

With time-lapse and macro techniques, these subtle changes stop being fleeting—and start becoming teachable.

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🔬 Why subtle colour changes matter

Many practicals hinge on observations that students struggle to see clearly:

• Indicator transitions that happen in seconds

• Precipitates forming gradually rather than instantly

• Colour intensity changing with concentration or time

Capturing these properly helps students:

• Link theory to observation

• Develop better practical descriptions

• Understand rate, equilibrium, and endpoints rather than guessing them

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⏱️ Time-lapse: slowing chemistry down

Time-lapse is ideal when:

• Colour change is slow or incremental

• A precipitate forms over several minutes

• Diffusion or settling is part of the process

Practical tips

• Lock exposure and white balance to avoid colour drift

• Use even, diffuse lighting (avoid flickering LEDs)

• Frame tightly so the reaction fills most of the image

The result is a smooth, visual narrative students can replay and discuss.

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🔍 Macro: making the invisible visible

Macro techniques excel when:

• The colour change is faint

• The reaction zone is small

• You want to show texture, layering, or nucleation

What macro reveals

• The first appearance of a precipitate

• Sharp boundaries between reacted and unreacted regions

• Differences in colour intensity that are invisible at normal scale

Even simple glassware becomes visually rich when viewed up close.

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🎥 Teaching benefits

Used in lessons or revision videos, these techniques:

• Reduce “I missed it!” moments in practicals

• Support exam-ready language for observations

• Work brilliantly for online and hybrid teaching

• Create reusable footage year after year

Students don’t just memorise outcomes—they see them unfold.

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💡 Final thought

Chemistry isn’t always loud, colourful, or explosive.
Sometimes the most important learning happens in a barely-noticeable change—until you slow it down and zoom in.

That’s where time-lapse and macro turn observation into understanding.

Corporate Pieces to Camera

 

Corporate Pieces to Camera

Eye-line tricks and teleprompter tips for natural delivery

Corporate video lives or dies on credibility. Viewers forgive a modest set and simple graphics, but they instantly spot shifty eyes, wooden delivery, or the unmistakable “I’m reading” look. The good news? Most of these problems are easy to fix with a few practical techniques.

This guide is written for business owners, educators, and presenters filming pieces to camera—whether that’s a LinkedIn update, a website explainer, or a formal corporate message.

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1. Why eye-line matters more than you think

Eye-line is where your gaze sits relative to the camera lens. Get it wrong, and the viewer subconsciously feels ignored, mistrusted, or distracted.

The golden rule
👉 The lens is a person.

If your eyes drift above, below, or to the side of the lens, the connection breaks. Even a few centimetres off can make the delivery feel hesitant or evasive.

Common mistakes

• Looking at your own image on the screen

• Reading notes placed beside the camera

• Watching the interviewer rather than the lens

• Fixating on a light or microphone

Quick fix
Stick a small bright dot or smiley face just above the lens. Your eyes naturally lock onto it, and the audience feels seen.

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2. Teleprompters: friend, not foe

Teleprompters often get a bad reputation—not because they’re bad, but because they’re used badly.

A well-set prompter lets you:

• Maintain perfect eye-line

• Deliver precise wording (vital for legal or technical content)

• Stay calm under pressure

The biggest teleprompter mistake

❌ Writing for the page, not the voice.

Teleprompter scripts must be:

• Short sentences

• Spoken English (not written prose)

• Broken into logical thought units

Bad prompter script

“Our organisation endeavours to provide comprehensive solutions across multiple sectors…”

Good prompter script

“What do we do?
We solve problems.
Quickly.
And clearly.”

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3. Speed: slower than you think

People read faster than they speak—and much faster than they sound natural.

Set your prompter speed slower than feels comfortable.
If you think it’s slow enough, slow it down again.

Signs your prompter is too fast:

• You rush breaths

• Your head starts bobbing

• You lose emphasis and rhythm

A calm pace instantly reads as:

• Confident

• Authoritative

• Trustworthy

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4. Eye movement: the subtle giveaway

Viewers are incredibly sensitive to unnatural eye movement.

Watch for:

• Rapid left-right flicking

• Eyes dropping at the end of every sentence

• Blinking spikes (a stress response)

Fix it

• Increase line spacing on the prompter

• Keep lines short (6–10 words)

• Insert deliberate pause markers

Example:

“This matters.
Pause
Because it affects everyone.”

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5. Don’t memorise—rehearse

There’s a crucial difference.

• Memorising leads to panic when you forget a word

• Rehearsing builds familiarity and flow

Best practice:

• Read once silently

• Read once aloud

• Film a rough take

• Then record for real

That first take often removes 80% of stiffness.

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6. Body language still counts

Even in a tight head-and-shoulders frame, your body speaks.

Do

• Sit or stand tall

• Relax shoulders

• Use small, contained gestures

Avoid

• Locked elbows

• Clenched hands

• Rocking or swaying

A relaxed body gives a relaxed voice—and the camera loves that.

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7. A simple professional setup (no studio required)

You don’t need a TV studio to look credible.

Minimum viable setup

• Camera at eye level

• Teleprompter aligned directly with the lens

• Soft light at 45° (window light works brilliantly)

• Neutral background with depth (not a flat wall)

Consistency and confidence beat expensive kit every time.

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Final thought: authenticity beats perfection

A tiny stumble feels human.
A robotic delivery feels false.

Aim for:
✔ Clear
✔ Calm
✔ Conversational

If it sounds like you talking to a real person—
you’ve got it right.

From Misconception to Mastery How We Surface — and Fix — Common Science Misunderstandings

 

From Misconception to Mastery

How We Surface — and Fix — Common Science Misunderstandings

One of the biggest myths about learning science is that students fail because they don’t know enough.

In reality, most students struggle because they know the wrong thing very confidently.

After 40 years of teaching science — in classrooms, laboratories, and now a TV studio — I’ve learned that progress rarely comes from piling on more content. It comes from finding the misunderstanding, surfacing it safely, and rebuilding the idea properly.

The Hidden Problem: Science Feels Right (Even When It’s Wrong)

Science is full of ideas that feel obvious but are quietly misleading:

• Heavier objects fall faster than lighter ones

• Current gets “used up” as it goes round a circuit

• Enzymes get used up in reactions

• Particles expand when something is heated

• Acids are always dangerous and corrosive

Students don’t arrive with empty heads. They arrive with models of how the world works, built from everyday experience — and many of those models clash directly with physics, chemistry, and biology.

If those models aren’t challenged explicitly, they sit underneath exam answers like a cracked foundation.

Step 1: Make the Misconception Visible

The first step isn’t correction — it’s exposure.

I often start lessons by asking students to:

• Predict the outcome of an experiment

• Explain why something happens

• Choose between two plausible answers

Crucially, I don’t mark these responses straight away.

When a student commits to an idea — even a wrong one — it becomes something we can examine together. No embarrassment. No “gotcha”. Just curiosity.

Step 2: Break the Model (Gently)

Once a misconception is on the table, we let evidence do the talking.

That might mean:

• Dropping objects side-by-side

• Measuring current before and after a component

• Timing enzyme reactions as substrate concentration changes

• Using slow-motion video or sensors to remove ambiguity

The goal isn’t to tell students they’re wrong.
It’s to let them see that their current explanation doesn’t quite survive contact with reality.

This moment — when “that should have worked, but didn’t” — is where real learning begins.

Step 3: Rebuild with a Better Explanation

Only once the old model has cracked do we introduce the new one.

Now the correct explanation:

• Solves the problem the old idea couldn’t

• Fits the evidence more cleanly

• Feels useful, not arbitrary

This is why practical work, demonstrations, and data logging are so powerful. They don’t just show what happens — they explain why the old idea fails.

Step 4: Apply It Somewhere New

A misconception isn’t fixed until it stays fixed.

So we:

• Apply the idea in a new context

• Change the numbers

• Swap diagrams

• Ask students to explain it aloud or teach it back

If they can use the idea flexibly, we know it’s no longer fragile.

Why This Matters for Exams — and Beyond

Exams don’t just test recall. They test model consistency.

Most lost marks at GCSE and A-Level come from:

• Applying the wrong model confidently

• Mixing everyday language with scientific meaning

• Giving answers that are locally correct but globally flawed

Fixing misconceptions early doesn’t just improve grades — it builds students who can reason, adapt, and trust their understanding.

From Studio to Classroom

Whether I’m filming a YouTube experiment, teaching online from the studio, or working 1:1 in the lab, the approach is the same:

Don’t hide mistakes.
Use them.

Because mastery in science doesn’t come from never being wrong —
it comes from learning why you were wrong, and what works better instead.

 

Portraits in the Lab: Balancing Practical Context with Flattering Light

There’s something uniquely powerful about a portrait taken in a laboratory. Beakers, glassware, cables, sensors and half-built experiments all tell a story before a single word is spoken. But laboratories are also visually busy, often harshly lit spaces — brilliant for experiments, less so for faces.

Over the years, photographing teachers, researchers and students in my own lab has become an exercise in balance: keeping the authentic context while still producing a portrait that feels warm, professional and human.

The challenge

Labs are designed for accuracy, not aesthetics:

• Overhead strip lighting creates deep eye shadows

• White benches and glassware reflect light unpredictably

• Backgrounds can quickly overwhelm the subject

Left unmanaged, the result is a technically accurate image that is visually unforgiving.

The solution: controlled simplicity

The key is not to fight the lab — but to tame it.

1. Light the person, not the room
A single soft key light, often diffused or bounced, is enough to lift facial features while letting the lab fall slightly darker. The lab remains visible, but the eye goes straight to the subject.

2. Use context selectively
Not every piece of equipment needs to be in shot. One recognisable object — a burette, oscilloscope, PASCO sensor, or microscope — anchors the portrait without clutter.

3. Depth is your friend
Even in small labs, shallow depth of field helps. A softly blurred background keeps the scientific setting readable while flattering the subject.

4. Natural posture beats posing
Hands resting on a bench, adjusting a clamp, or mid-explanation always feels more authentic than a rigid stance. Especially important when photographing educators — credibility and approachability matter.

Why it matters

For websites, prospectuses, LinkedIn profiles and teaching platforms, these portraits quietly say:

• This is a real place

• This is hands-on learning

• This is someone you can trust

In education especially, a lab portrait isn’t about glamour — it’s about confidence, clarity and connection.

A good lab portrait doesn’t distract from the science.
It invites you into it.

 

Making a Micro-Documentary on the Gas Laws

Everything that happens before the camera even starts rolling

When people watch a short, polished science video on YouTube or TikTok, it’s easy to assume it was simply a case of “press record and explain the idea.”
In reality, most of the work happens long before a single frame is filmed.

This week’s project at Philip M Russell Ltd was a micro-documentary on the Gas Laws – Boyle’s Law, Charles’ Law and Avogadro’s Law – aimed at GCSE and early A-level students. The real challenge wasn’t the physics; it was designing something that is clear, visual, accurate and engaging in under five minutes.

Here’s what that process actually looks like.

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1. Planning the Story (Not Just the Content)

Before writing a script, I decide on the story arc.

For the gas laws, the narrative was simple:

• Gases aren’t mysterious – they behave predictably

• Pressure, volume, temperature and particle number are linked

• You can see these relationships if the experiment is right

That story dictates everything else:

• Which law comes first

• What visual evidence the viewer sees

• Where misconceptions are tackled

This is teaching through evidence, not just explanation.

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2. Script Writing – Teaching for the Camera

A teaching script is very different from a lesson plan.

For video:

• Sentences must be short

• Technical terms are introduced only when needed

• Every explanation is paired with a visual action

For example, Boyle’s Law isn’t introduced with an equation first.
Instead, the script cues:

• A syringe being compressed

• A pressure sensor reading rising

• Then the relationship is named and formalised

The script also includes:

• Camera cues

• Cutaway moments

• On-screen text prompts

By the time filming starts, every word is already doing a job.

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3. Props and Experiments – Designing for Visibility

Not all “good” experiments work well on camera.

For this documentary, the experiments had to be:

• Safe

• Repeatable

• Visually obvious

• Large enough to read on screen

That meant choosing:

• Large syringes rather than small ones

• Clear balloons instead of opaque tubing

• Digital sensors with readable displays

Experiments were rehearsed several times before filming to check:

• Timing

• Clarity

• Whether the key moment is obvious without narration

If the camera can’t see it, the student won’t understand it.

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4. Costumes and Visual Consistency (Yes, Really)

Clothing matters more than most people realise.

Before filming:

• Avoid stripes and tight patterns (they shimmer on camera)

• Neutral colours so props stand out

• Lab coat used deliberately to signal “experiment mode”

This consistency helps students subconsciously understand:

“This is an experiment you could do – not a magic trick.”

It’s part of building trust in the explanation.

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5. Why All This Matters

This level of preparation means that when filming starts:

• There’s no improvising key explanations

• Experiments work first time

• The focus stays on learning, not troubleshooting

For students, the result is:

• Clear visuals

• Logical explanations

• Concepts that stick

For parents and schools, it means:

• Carefully designed resources

• Not rushed or improvised content

• Teaching that respects how students actually learn

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Behind every short science video is a long planning process

And that’s exactly how it should be.

 

Writing Short Stings
Branded 3–5 Second Cues for Intros and Outros

Invent them yourself or use AI to help?

Short musical stings — those 3–5 second cues that open or close a video — are small details that carry a lot of weight. They set tone, signal brand identity, and create recognition long before a logo appears.

At Philip M Russell Ltd, where videos range from science lessons and sailing clips to studio work and organ recordings, stings act as audio logos. The question we’re often asked is:
Should you write them yourself, or use AI tools to help?

The answer is usually: both.

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Why Short Stings Matter

A good sting:

• creates instant recognition

• signals professionalism

• provides a clean transition into content

• gives closure at the end

• reinforces brand memory

• works even when viewers aren’t watching the screen

In educational content, stings also help structure attention — “this is the start” or “we’re wrapping up”.

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Writing Stings by Hand

Writing your own sting gives total control.

Advantages

• unique to your brand

• perfectly matches your tone

• consistent across platforms

• no copyright concerns

• easily adapted over time

Using the Wersi, synthesisers or church organ, a sting can be as simple as:

• a rising chord

• a four-note motif

• a soft pad swell

• a rhythmic pulse

• a harmonic cadence

The best stings are memorable, not complicated.

Practical Tips

• keep it under 5 seconds

• limit yourself to 2–3 musical ideas

• avoid long tails unless it’s an outro

• choose a key that works across content

• leave space for spoken intros

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Using AI as a Creative Assistant

AI tools are increasingly good at generating musical ideas. Used wisely, they can speed up the process.

Where AI Helps

• generating starting motifs

• suggesting harmonic progressions

• exploring rhythm ideas

• producing variations quickly

• helping overcome creative blocks

AI can act like a musical sketchpad.

Where AI Falls Short

• lacks brand awareness

• can sound generic

• often over-complex

• may generate copyright-uncertain material

• rarely understands context

Left untouched, AI stings can feel anonymous.

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The Hybrid Workflow We Use

At Philip M Russell Ltd, our best results come from combining both approaches:

1. Use AI to explore ideas quickly

2. Select one promising motif

3. Rewrite and simplify it manually

4. Perform or re-voice it on real instruments

5. Adjust tempo, key and dynamics

6. Mix lightly and export clean versions

This keeps the result human, recognisable and flexible.

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Branding Through Sound

Our stings differ slightly depending on context:

• science videos → calm, clean, neutral

• sailing clips → airy, open textures

• studio updates → modern synth pulses

• organ recordings → harmonic, tonal cues

Different flavours — same musical DNA.

That’s what makes them work across multiple platforms without feeling repetitive.

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The Takeaway

Short stings are powerful branding tools.
Writing them yourself gives authenticity.
AI can help speed up ideas — but it shouldn’t replace musical judgement.

The best approach is hybrid:
AI for inspiration, human musicianship for identity.

Three seconds of sound can say more than a paragraph of text.