Columbus City Schools
Making Waves
Learning about waves can have its ups and downs, but a demo-packed tool kit has the class "standing" for more! Learners gain experience with several different wave types, organizing observations and data, and wave...
Teach Engineering
Flame Test: Red, Green, Blue, Violet?
Let the true colors shine through. Pupils conduct a flame test to identify an unknown element. Class members calculate and prepare specific molarity solutions of three chemicals. Using their observations of the colors emitted, they...
Cornell University
Light Waves: Grades 9-12
Explore the behavior of light waves with a lab activity. Scholars build new vocabulary through experimentation and observation. Using different mediums, they model reflection, refraction, transmission, diffusion, and scattering of light.
Urbana School District
Light
You matter, unless you multiply yourself by the speed of light ... then you energy. Presentation covers the behavior of light as both a wave and a particle, light versus sound, space travel, why objects have colors, depth perception,...
LABScI
Acoustics: The Sound Lab
If the delay between a sound and its echo is less than 1/10th of a second, the human ear can’t distinguish it. Through the use of a Slinky, rubber band guitar, and straws, scholars explore where sound comes from and how it travels....
Cornell University
Sound Off!
Time to witness the effects of sound. Learners analyze different materials to determine their abilities to absorb sound waves. They use free software to monitor the amplitude of the waves to verify results.
K12 Reader
Waves & Currents
Challenge your young readers with a passage about physical science. After reading about sound waves and electric currents, kids answer five reading comprehension questions about what they have read.
Rice University
College Physics for AP® Courses
Take a look at an organized physics course. The 34-section electronic textbook covers material in AP® Physics 1 and 2. Teachers use the text to supplement lectures and have the class work through the labs. Each section contains...
Curated OER
HW Unit 10:5-Sound
In this sound learning exercise, students answer 17 questions about sound, the wavelength of sounds, the frequency of sounds, the speed of sound, the types of sound waves and the effects of the medium sound travels through on its speed.
Curated OER
Electromagnetic Spectrum
Students define electromagnetic radiation, list major categories and uses of electromagnetic waves, identify potential health risks with electromagnetic waves, and demonstrate understanding of Plank's constant by solving quantitative...
Curated OER
Color
In this color worksheet, learners read about light, prisms, the RGB model and the CMYK model. Students match colors with their definition, they draw the color chart, they apply the RGB and CMYK models to make colors and they interpret...
Curated OER
Standing Waves
In this standing waves activity, high schoolers read about standing waves, their nodes, their anti-nodes and their wavelengths. They are given diagrams of harmonics and the equation to find the frequency of harmonics. Students match...
Curated OER
Chemical Sleuthing
Learners engage in a lesson which includes flame tests and the construction of a simple diffraction spectrograph with which to measure sodium ion emissions. They use the Bragg equation to compute the wavelength of the line spectra produced.
Mr. E. Science
Characteristics of Waves
Waves, waves, and more waves. Here, class members look at the many types and characteristics of energy waves including transverse, longitudinal, standing, seismic, p-waves, s-waves, and l-waves.
K12 Reader
Waves and Currents
Waves, currents, crests, and troughs. Using information provided in an article about waves and currents, readers define terms used to describe how energy travels.
California Department of Education
Waves and Music
Strike the right chord with a musical activity! Instructors provide a lecture on the mechanics of a pan flute. Pupils build their own pan flutes by using straws and calculating the lengths to create a scale. After cutting the straws to...
CK-12 Foundation
Stow Lake
Does the depth of a pond matter to the waves created when rain is falling? Many people assume the answer is no, but interestingly, it does matter. Pupils explore this concept and other variables related to wave behavior through a...
CK-12 Foundation
Light Wave
Do radio waves create light? It's more difficult to understand the things we can't see than those that we can. The simulation compares the relatively small range of visible light to the entire electromagnetic spectrum. It graphs the size...
Cornell University
Sound Waves
How does sound travel through different mediums? Scholars explore this question by creating and observing sound waves as they learn the difference between transverse and longitudinal wave motion. Using their new knowledge, class members...
Purdue University
Design of Music Instruments for a Rock Band
Can you create a rock band? Scholars learn about the creation and transmission of sound in a hands-on STEM activity. First, they explore the transmission of sound using a tuning fork. Then, they must solve the problem of missing...
Curated OER
Introduction to Light
Learners study the basic structure of the atom. For this chemistry lesson, students explain how colors relate to energy that electrons emit. They calculate energy of the emitted photons.
Curated OER
Good Vibrations
Students demonstrate sound waves and make changes in the waves
resulting in changes in pitch. Students associate changes in pitch in various "musical instruments"with size and shape and the sound waves they produce.
Curated OER
Measuring the Speed of a Wave
Students create an experiment in which they measure the speed of a wave and record the data in a graph. They work in small groups to write the procedure for the experiment and share it with another group for cross checking of the...
Curated OER
Good Vibrations: Building a Wave Model
Pupils assess and apply recurring patterns in natural systems. They evaluate the wave properties of frequency, wavelength, and speed as applied to sound. Students develop a relationship to quantify aspects of wave motion. They predict...