A newly designed smartphone friendly barcode project allows people to learn about the prizes in Chemistry.
Thanks to a brand new project that is receiving considerable online attention, QR codes are being used to give consumers the ability to use their smartphones or tablets to gain instant information about people who have received the Nobel Prize.
The project uses the barcodes to share 110 years of information regarding this top science award.
The QR codes are printed on a new poster that, when scanned, provide device users with information about the Nobel Prizes in Chemistry. This poster was described in the Journal of Chemical Education from the ACS. This type of technology is changing the way that students are able to learn within the classroom.
It has been estimated that 25 to 50 percent of high school students have smartphones that could scan QR codes.
As the apps for scanning QR codes are free, this means that a massive percentage of the American student population has the capability to read the barcodes printed on the posters. Therefore, the ability to use that technology to provide students with an enhanced experience presents a considerable amount of potential.
These QR codes provide quick and effortless access to the 160 winners of the Nobel prize from1901 through 2011. The poster is uniquely designed in that it does not provide short summaries of the Nobel prize recipients and thumbnail portraits, but instead offers rows upon rows of barcodes that can be scanned by smartphone users.
The scan of the QR codes redirects the device users to a website, where the pages provide a brief description of each of the winners. Each Nobel prize winner has his or her own barcode so that a scan will bring the user directly to that individual’s – or team’s – webpage.
The poster itself is arranged chronologically and resembles the periodic table of elements. Except that scanning the barcodes will provide the user with information about the various chemists, instead of a specific element. The hope is that using the mobile learning environment will make learning about this – and other topics – more fun and appealing.