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Total Duration:
31 to 60 Minutes
Materials and Resources:
Per group of four students:
water basin with about 3 inches of water
ping pong ball
wax bottle candy (for assessment)
Per student:
straw
Technology Resources Needed:
Tablet with video capability for slow motion (one per group)
Background/Preparation:
Students should have knowledge of the basic components of a wave and should know that energy can be transferred through waves.
Engage
Think/Pair/Share - Students will discuss the following questions:
Have you ever floated on an inner tube in a pool or lake? Do you always stay in the same spot? Why or why not?
Explore
Distribute materials to each group and the straws to the students.
The students will predict in their science notebook what they think will happen to the surface of the water when one student blows on the surface of the water from 6 inches away. Then they will predict what will happen to the surface of the water when two students blow at the same time from 6 inches away.
One student will video in slow motion as another student blows on the surface of the water from 6 inches away.
The students will answer the following questions in their science notebook:
What happened to the surface of the water when one person blew air through the straw?
What caused the water to move?
What happened to the amplitude when more than one person blew air on the water?
What happened to the wavelength when more than one person blew air on the water?
What happened to the frequency when more than one person blew air on the water?
Explain
The teacher will lead a class discussion on how energy is transferred through waves using the questions the students answered in their science notebooks.
Elaborate
The students will repeat the above experiment using the slow motion videos but will add the ping pong ball to the surface of the water to see if energy can be transferred through the wave to make the ping pong ball move. They will do this with one person blowing air through a straw and then add a second person.
They will answer the following question in their science notebook:
Was energy transferred through the wave to make the ping pong ball move? If so, how do you know?
Evaluate
Ongoing teacher observation should be used as a formative assessment throughout the lesson and discussions.
Assessment Strategies
Students will create a simulation of placing a message in a bottle in a large body of water.
Students will place their wax bottle candy into a large pail of water and use their straws to create small and large waves around the bottle. The students will answer the following questions in their notebooks:
Describe how the waves made the bottle move.
What happened to the wavelengths of the waves as more/less wind was applied to the water? What happened to the bottle when more/less wind was applied?
How did the amplitude of the wave change as more wind was applied?
The answers given my the students in their science notebooks will be used as an assessment to ensure the standard has been met.
Acceleration:
Provide students with a variety of objects that they could test using the procedures from the Elaborate portion of the lesson (bottle cap, styrofoam packing peanut, sponge, etc.).
Intervention:
It may be helpful to preview the vocabulary that will come up in the lesson. Providing the terms on cards would help students to visualize the word as they hear you say it during the lesson (amplitude, wavelength, frequency).
Students may draw what they see happening in their notebooks instead of writing their answers for the discussion time.
View the Special Education resources for
instructional guidance in providing modifications and adaptations
for students with significant cognitive disabilities who qualify for the Alabama Alternate Assessment.