Mini Spectroscope (Athena Meltzer)
Author
Athena Meltzer
Homemade Spectroscope using template
A simple spectroscope made with template, black paper and piece of CD
*Because I am do this with 8th grade students, I try to keep it simple and emphasize that different colors have different wavelengths.
NGSS ADDRESSED
MS-PS4-2*. Develop and use a model to describe that waves are reflected, absorbed, or transmitted through various materials.
MS-ESS1-3. Analyze and interpret data to determine scale properties of objects in the solar system.
MS-ETS1-4. Develop a model to generate data for iterative testing and modification of a proposed object, tool, or process such that an optimal design can be achieved.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE
Students understand that white light is made up of different colors and these colors have different wavelengths.
Austronomers use this information to determine how far away stars are.
Sample Investigation
Spectroscopes contain a prism or diffraction grating that separates and spreads out
light waves according to wavelength. Shorter wavelengths are diffracted, or
deflected, more than longer ones. Our eyes see each wavelength of light as a different
color. In a rainbow, or any other spectrum, the colors are arranged in order of their
wavelength, with red having the longest wavelength and violet having the shortest.
Not every color of the rainbow is always present in what our eyes see as white light. If
light from an incandescent bulb is spread into a spectrum, you see a continuous
rainbow, in which one color bleeds into the next with no gaps between them. But
fluorescent lights do not contain a complete rainbow. Their spectra contain bright
lines of specific colors, with dark gaps in between. Fluorescent bulbs produce light
only in these precise colors and no others.
Colored light may also be a blend of different colors. When seen through a
spectroscope, red light from a neon sign reveals stripes of several different colors.
A green “neon” sign may even include a stripe of violet.
Students are to write down their observations when using their spectroscope to look at different types of light bulbs and color of light being emitted.
