Curated OER
Take-Home Midterm Exam #3, Part A
Let your physics learners take this electromagnetic radiation exam home to show what they know. You could also use it in class or assign it as a review. The content covers concepts pertaining to color, wavelength, frequency, refraction,...
Curated OER
Behavior of Waves
Lots of definitions are given here, and your students will find the details and links useful, along with the diagrams and examples.
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.
Curated OER
Learning Light's Properties
Students examine the properties of light and the behavior of light during interference. In this electromagnetics lesson students explain behaviors of light.
Curated OER
Review of Optics
In this optics review learning exercise, students complete 50 multiple choice questions on light reflection, diffraction and interference.
Curated OER
Diffraction of Laser Light, Polarization and Color Filters
Young scholars investigate light behavior by conducting a series of experiments. In this physics activity, students calculate the wavelength of the light source using an equation. They determine what color is produced when light of...
Curated OER
Electromagnetic and Physical Waves
Students compare and contrast electromagnetic and physical waves. In this wave instructional activity, students discover that all waves reflect, refract, and diffract energy. Students work in small groups to experiment with waves and...
Curated OER
Wave Actions
For this waves worksheet, students read about the ways waves react depending on the boundary they encounter. They read about natural frequency, resonance, phases and interference in waves. They match 13 terms with their definitions, they...
Curated OER
Stations of Light
Student groups rotate through four stations to examine light energy behavior: refraction, magnification, prisms and polarization. They see how a beam of light is refracted (bent) through various transparent mediums. Students investigate...
Florida State University
Florida State University: The Rutherford Experiment
A simulation of the Rutherford experiment. Includes an animation and an explanation of the history behind the experiment.
Georgia State University
Georgia State University: Hyper Physics: Scattering Concepts
A collection of several pages explaining the principles which underlie Rayleigh scattering of light.
Georgia State University
Georgia State University: Hyper Physics: Diffraction
This physics department site provides links about the diffraction of light. Each page includes thorough explanations and meaningful graphics. Some pages include interactive problem-solving practice sections.
Georgia State University
Georgia State University: Hyper Physics: Interference
An indexing page for a physics department site about the wave properties of light that lead to interference.
Georgia Department of Education
Ga Virtual Learning: Physical Science: Light and Optics
Students will investigate the properties of light waves. They will learn about the different types of electromagnetic waves and mechanical waves, and investigate the phenomena of reflection, refraction, interference, and diffraction.
Georgia Department of Education
Ga Virtual Learning: Electromagnetic Waves and the Wave Nature of Light
In this interactive lesson about electromagnetic waves students will explore what they can see, what they can't, and what they know about the wave nature of this thing called "light."
Exploratorium
Exploratorium: Science Snacks: Physics/light
Here is a large collection of simple science class activities for understanding the physics of light.
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Building a Fancy Spectrograph
Students create and decorate their own spectrographs using simple materials and holographic diffraction gratings. A holographic diffraction grating acts like a prism, showing the visual components of light. After building the...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Estimating the Storage Capacity of a Cd/dvd
Students estimate the storage capacity of CDs and DVDs by assessing diffraction patterns of green and red laser beams.
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Spectroscopy
Students learn how using a spectrograph helps us understand the composition of light sources. Using simple materials and holographic diffraction gratings (available online at a variety of sites, including Edmund Scientifics and the...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: What Does Light See?
Students are introduced to the concept of refraction. After making sure they understand the concepts of diffraction and interference, students work collaboratively to explain optical phenomena that cannot be accounted for via these two...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Learning Light's Properties
Students learn the basic properties of light--the concepts of light absorption, transmission, reflection and refraction, as well as the behavior of light during interference. Lecture information briefly addresses the electromagnetic...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Laser Types and Uses
Through two classroom demos, students are introduced to the basic properties of lasers through various mediums. In the Making an Electric Pickle demonstration, students see how cellular tissue is able to conduct electricity, and how this...
Physics Classroom
The Physics Classroom: Wavelike Behaviors of Light
How light waves demonstrate their wave nature by reflection, refraction, and diffraction.
Physics Classroom
The Physics Classroom: Light Waves and Color
The behavior of light waves is introduced and discussed. Also, polarization, color, diffraction, and interference are introduced and discussed thoroughly as supporting evidence of the wave nature of light.