Exploratorium
Exploratorium: Science Snacks: Groovy Sounds
Using a paper, pencil, and pin students will build a phonograph in this activity. Students will be able to listen to their favorite record with this homemade record player.
National Association of Geoscience Teachers
Nagt: The Waves and Tsunamis Project
This activity helps students understand the significance and characteristics of waves.
American Geosciences Institute
American Geosciences Institute: Earth Science Week: Take the Pulse of Your Classroom
In this activity, students leverage SeisMac technology to understand how a seismometer records ground motions.
NASA
Nasa: Imagine the Universe: What's the Frequency, Roy G. Biv
In this very detailed lesson plan from NASA, students investigate wavelength and frequency within the electromagnetic spectrum.
Wisc-Online
Wisc Online: Physics Waves Vocabulary
Shoot for the moon in this vocabulary game over physics waves.
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Make Some Waves
In this activity, students use their own creativity (and their bodies) to make longitudinal and transverse waves. Through the use of common items, they will investigate the different between longitudinal and transverse waves.
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Simple Instruments
In this activity, students work with partners to create four different instruments to investigate the frequency of the sounds they make. Students may chose to make a shoebox guitar, water glass xylophone, straw panpipe or a soda bottle...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Earthquakes Rock!
Students learn the two main methods to measure earthquakes, the Richter Scale and the Mercalli Scale. They make a model of a seismograph - a measuring device that records an earthquake on a seismogram. Students also investigate which...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Checking the Surf
This lesson introduces the concepts of wavelength and amplitude in transverse waves. In the associated activity, learners will use ropes and their bodies to investigate different wavelengths and amplitudes.
Nobel Media AB
The Nobel Prize: Wilhelm Conrad Rontgen Biographical
This biographical note on Wilhelm Conrad Rontgen describes his boyhood, upbringing, education, scientific work and accomplishments. Focuses on his studies of Xrays.
Physics Classroom
The Physics Classroom: The Wave Equation
A thorough explanation of the wave equation (Speed = Wavelength * Frequency). A data table and questions to check one's understanding are also part of this lesson.
Physics Classroom
The Physics Classroom: The Doppler Effect
At this tutorial, a happy bug in the center of a circular water puddle is used to describe the Doppler effect.
Physics Classroom
The Physics Classroom: Traveling Waves vs. Standing Waves
Traveling and standing waves are thoroughly explained through the use of drawings and animation.
Read Works
Read Works: Wild Waves
[Free Registration/Login Required] An informational text about huge waves created by an undersea ridge off the coast of California called Cortes Bank. A question sheet is available to help students build skills in reading comprehension.
Read Works
Read Works: Wild Waves
[Free Registration/Login Required] An informational text about Cortes Bank, a site in California with some of the biggest waves in the world. A question sheet is available to help students build skills in reading comprehension.
CK-12 Foundation
Ck 12: Plix: Alaskan Earthquake: Seismic Waves
[Free Registration/Login Required] A site that diagrams what happens if a major earthquake occurs over Alaska. A short quiz over the topic is also included.
CK-12 Foundation
Ck 12: Physical Science: Wavelength
[Free Registration/Login may be required to access all resource tools.] What wavelength is and how it relates to the energy of a wave.
CK-12 Foundation
Ck 12: Physical Science: Wave Amplitude
[Free Registration/Login may be required to access all resource tools.] What wave amplitude is and how to measure it, and what determines the amplitude of a wave.
CK-12 Foundation
Ck 12: Physical Science: Wave Frequency
[Free Registration/Login may be required to access all resource tools.] Definition of wave frequency and how it is related to the energy of a wave.
CK-12 Foundation
Ck 12: Physical Science: Transverse Wave
[Free Registration/Login may be required to access all resource tools.] What a transverse wave is, its crests and troughs and what an S wave is.
CK-12 Foundation
Ck 12: Physical Science: Wave Interference
[Free Registration/Login may be required to access all resource tools.] What wave interference is, constructive and destructive interference and how standing waves occur.
Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology
Iris: Seismic Wave Motions
Four animations showing the movements of surface waves and body waves that are created by earthquakes. Includes P, S, Rayleigh, and Love waves.
Soft Schools
Soft Schools: Waves
Take an interactive quiz over energy waves. After completing the quiz, check your score, and then revisit any incorrect question for further review.
Yale University
Open Yale Courses: Physics 200: Waves
This lecture includes discussion on various factors affecting waves. Topics addressed include velocity, intensity, energy and frequency. Several examples are given to clarify each topic. The lecture is available in video, audio or...