  One of the oft-cited qualities sought after in a potential future engineering
employee is an analytical mind that is "continually examining things." In one
sense this examination is discouraged in an instructional laboratory employing
opaque black box data collection devices. Smartphones can be used to gather
such data but also - by their very nature- have the capability of removing the
veil of opacity so as to allow students to examine their operation at a very
fundamental level. By taking advantage of a smartphone's visualization
capabilities one can elucidate core aspects of its operation equally or perhaps
better than a mechanical model might. Through purposeful app and curricular
design based on student feedback, we avoid this commonly perceived pitfall of
electronic devices and encourage student examination of one such device, the
student's own smartphone.
