Below you will find Videos, Lessons, and Projects that align with state standards when teaching about Waves. If you would like to view the resource, just click on the image and it'll take you directly to it.
Videos
You can't go wrong with Bill Nye this is a good overview of the unit and would work perfect for a sub to use.
All waves can transfer energy from one place to another without transferring any matter. This is done by a series of disturbances or vibrations that carry the energy. Just like the people in their seats, only moving up and down when it’s their turn. Waves can transfer energy through solids, liquids, gases and empty spaces – otherwise known as vacuums. There are two types of waves – which we will look at in more detail in another video, but the basic features are the same.
Waves are cool. The more we learn about waves, the more we learn about a lot of things in physics. Everything from earthquakes to music! Ropes can tell us a lot about how traveling waves work so, in this episode of Crash Course Physics, Shini uses ropes (and animated ropes) to talk about how waves carry energy and how different kinds of waves transmit energy differently.
Lessons
Evaluate the claims, evidence, and reasoning behind the idea that electromagnetic radiation can be described either by a wave model or a particle model, and that for some situations one model is more useful than the other.
Students learn about the types of waves and how they change direction, as well as basic wave properties such as wavelength, frequency, amplitude and speed. During the presentation of lecture information on wave characteristics and properties, students take notes using a handout. Then they label wave parts on a worksheet diagram and draw their own waves with specified properties (crest, trough and wavelength). They also make observations about the waves they drew to determine which has the highest and the lowest frequency. With this knowledge, students better understand waves and are a step closer to understanding how humans see color.
This lesson follows the NGSS standards for reviewing analog and digital waves. Students will be able to review the differences and similarities of analog and digital waves. Students will also be able to review how signals sent as analog or digital waves are used.
STEM Projects
Watch a string vibrate in slow motion. Wiggle the end of the string and make waves or adjust the frequency and amplitude of an oscillator. Adjust the damping and tension. The end can be fixed, loose, or open.
In these hands on, exploratory lesson of waves, students will learn about longitudinal and transverse waves. Through mathematical reasoning, students will describe relationships between aspects of waves and a wave’s relative amount of energy. Students will use questioning skills to push the lesson along and facilitate engagement and discovery. The use of hands-on models will help the students to discover relationships and characteristics of waves and go on to create their own models. Students will be able to...identify sound waves as longitudinal waves that travel through a medium recognize the dB levels of everyday sounds understand energy causes the vibrations that allow the sound waves to travel.
In this game players must learn about simple waves that can be described by their amplitude, wavelength and offset. This puzzle game allows players to combined two waves to form a new wave, following rules of constructive and deconstructive interference.
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