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Circle of Knowledge
Lesson Plan
Physical Science
8
90+ Minutes
Katlyn Allmon

Instructional Unit Content

Standard(s)/Element(s)
Content Area Standard
S8P4. Students will explore the wave nature of sound and electromagnetic radiation.
a. Identify the characteristics of electromagnetic and mechanical waves.
b. Describe how the behavior of light waves is manipulated causing reflection, refraction
diffraction, and absorption.
c. Explain how the human eye sees objects and colors in terms of wavelengths.
d. Describe how the behavior of waves is affected by medium (such as air, water, solids).
TAG Standard
Higher Order and Critical Thinking Skills

2. The student responds to questions with supporting information that reflects in-depth
knowledge of a topic.
7. The student examines an issue from more than one point of view.
8. The student separates ones own point of view from that of others.
Summary/Overview
The focus of this lesson is to allow students to discern the relationship between the light
perceived and behavior of light within a variety of real world situations.

Enduring Understanding(s)
At the end of this lesson the student will understand that
a) Each color of visible light has its own wavelength.
b) The color we see depends upon the object ability to absorb, transmit or reflect the
light wave.
c) Wavelength and energy are inversely related on the EM Spectrum.
d) Frequency and energy are directly related on the EM Spectrum.
Essential Question(s)

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How does the behavior of a light wave impact the light perceived in everyday life?
Concept(s) to Maintain
Light is an electromagnetic and transverse wave.
The speed of light does not change.
Wavelength is the measurement from one crest to the next adjacent crest on a transverse
wave.
Frequency is the number of times a wave passes a certain point in a second.
Evidence of Learning
What students should know:
a. The EM Spectrum is a range of all electromagnetic waves by greatest to least energy.
b. Opaque objects can absorb light wavelengths and reflect others.
c. Translucent and transparent objects can transmit light.
d. Light can bend when passing through more than one medium.
e. Black absorbs all wavelengths of light.
f. White reflects all wavelengths of light.
What students should be able to do:
a. Respond to questions with supporting information that reflects in-depth knowledge of
a topic.
b. Examine an issue from more than one point of view.
c. Separates ones own point of view from that of others.
Suggested Vocabulary
Electromagnetic Spectrum
Opaque
Transparent
Translucent
Reflection
Absorption
Transmission

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Prism
Refraction
Diffraction
Wavelength
Light energy
Frequency
Procedure(s)
Phase 1: Sparking the Discussion (Hook)
1.

Call for volunteers to answer the following questions Have you ever worn a black shirt in the
summer? A white shirt? Pose the question: How did your temperature change when wearing
each shirt? Why did the sunlight interact differently with each of the colors? Allow students to
record their ideas. Select a few students to respond aloud.

Phase 2: Acquiring Content Needed to Participate in Discussion

2.

3.

Pose the essential (focus) question: How does the behavior of a light wave impact the
light perceived in everyday life? Activate prior knowledge by having students create
sentences using at least three words from the Word Splash.
Students will read What Wavelength Goes With Color?, Behaviour of Waves, How Long
Does It Take Sunlight To Reach The Earth? and Why Is Color: Light and Photography and
take notes on the Light Behaviors organizer.

Phase 3: Kindling the Discussion

4.

Students will arrange in groups of four (one student from each article reading), use their
notes from the article readings and the Questioning Cube to answer and have small group
discussions.

5.

As a whole group, students will then discuss their findings about light behaviors and how
light is perceived.

Phase 4: Synthesis Activity

6.

Students will sort the objects provided into categories of diffraction, reflection, refraction or
absorption. Pose the question: How does light behaviors impact the light we perceive? Students
might find ideas for their solution at

http://www.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/npe11.sci.phys.energy.lightbehaviors/lightRevised April 2015

wave-behaviors/
Summarizing Activity

3-2-1 Exit Ticket

Resource(s)
Anchor Text(s):
What Wavelength Goes With Color? NASA Article Curator: Jay Madigan and NASA
Official: Lin Chambers
http://science-edu.larc.nasa.gov/EDDOCS/Wavelengths_for_Colors.html
Behaviour of Waves Science Learning Hub Article Published: 02 May 2011
http://sciencelearn.org.nz/Science-Stories/Tsunamis-and-Surf/Behaviour-of-waves
How Long Does It Take Sunlight To Reach The Earth? Universe Today Article by Fraser
Cain http://phys.org/news/2013-04-sunlight-earth.html
Why Is Color?: Light and Photography Mark D. Fairchild Article Copyright 2006-2013
http://www.rit-mcsl.org/fairchild/WhyIsColor/Questions/1-8.html
http://www.rit-mcsl.org/fairchild/WhyIsColor/Questions/6-4.html
Technology:
Mission Science: Wave Behaviors Video
http://www.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/npe11.sci.phys.energy.lightbehaviors/light-wavebehaviors/
Images:
http://missionscience.nasa.gov/ems/03_behaviors.html
https://lightwaters.wordpress.com/2010/04/26/how-to-find-the-silver-lining/
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Flower_reflection.jpg
http://tinyurl.com/qhelh5a
http://tinyurl.com/lkfvpyt
http://tinyurl.com/m4u6tjx
http://csc4waves.weebly.com/electromagnetic-radiation-light-waves.html
Handouts:
Handout 1:
Handout 2:
Handout 3:
Handout 4:
Handout 5:
Handout 6:
Handout 7:
Handout 8:

Word Splash
What Wavelength Goes With Color? Article
Behaviour of Waves Article
How Long Does It Take Sunlight To Reach The Earth? Article
Why Is Color: Light and Photography Articles
Notes Organizer
Questioning Cubes
Light Behaviors Image Sort

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Handout 9: 3-2-1

Handout 1
Word Splash

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EM Spectrum

refract

vacuum

Transmission

Factors Influencing A
Light Wave
absorb

prism

diffract

convex

Handout 2

What Wavelength Goes With a Color?

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Curator: Jay Madigan

NASA Official: Lin Chambers
Last Updated:
11/15/2011 09:22:33

Our eyes are sensitive to light which lies in a very small region of the
electromagnetic spectrum labeled "visible light". This "visible light"
corresponds to a wavelength range of 400 - 700 nanometers (nm) and a color
range of violet through red. The human eye is not capable of "seeing" radiation
with wavelengths outside the visible spectrum. The visible colors from shortest
to longest wavelength are: violet, blue, green, yellow, orange, and red.
Ultraviolet radiation has a shorter wavelength than the visible violet light.
Infrared radiation has a longer wavelength than visible red light. The white
light is a mixture of the colors of the visible spectrum. Black is a total absence
of light.
Earth's most important energy source is the Sun. Sunlight consists of the entire
electromagnetic spectrum.

Violet Light
The visible violet light has a wavelength of about 400 nm.
Within the visible wavelength spectrum, violet and blue
wavelengths are scattered more efficiently than other
wavelengths. The sky looks blue, not violet, because our
eyes are more sensitive to blue light (the sun also emits
more energy as blue light than as violet).

Indigo Light
The visible indigo light has a wavelength of about 445
nm.

Blue Light
The visible blue light has a wavelength of about 475 nm.
Because the blue wavelengths are shorter in the visible
spectrum, they are scattered more efficiently by the
molecules in the atmosphere. This causes the sky to
appear blue.

Green Light
The visible green light has a wavelength of about 510 nm.
Grass, for example, appears green because all of the colors
in the visible part of the spectrum are absorbed into the
leaves of the grass except green. Green is reflected,
therefore grass appears green.

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Yellow Light
The visible yellow light has a wavelength of about 570
nm. Low-pressure sodium lamps, like those used in some
parking lots, emit a yellow (wavelength 589 nm) light.

Orange Light
The visible orange light has a wavelength of about 590
nm.

Red Light
The visible red light has a wavelength of about 650 nm. At
sunrise and sunset, red or orange colors are present
because the wavelengths associated with these colors are
less efficiently scattered by the atmosphere than the
shorter wavelength colors (e.g., blue and purple). A large
amount of blue and violet light has been removed as a
result of scattering and the longwave colors, such as red
and orange, are more readily seen.

Colors We Can't See

There are many wavelengths in the electromagnetic spectrum the human eye cannot
detect.
Energy with wavelengths too short for humans to see
Energy with wavelengths too short to see is "bluer than blue". Light with such short
wavelengths is called "Ultraviolet" light.
How do we know this light exists? One way is that this kind of light causes sunburns. Our
skin is sensitive to this kind of light. If we stay out in this light without sunblock
protection, our skin absorbs this energy. After the energy is absorbed, it can make our
skin change color ("tan") or it can break down the cells and cause other damage.
Energy with wavelengths too long for humans to see
Energy whose wavelength is too long to see is "redder than red". Light with such long
wavelengths is called "Infrared" light. The term "Infra-" means "lower than".
How do we know this kind of light exists? One way is that we can feel energy with these
wavelengths such as when we sit in front of a campfire or when we get close to a stove
burner. Scientists like Samuel Pierpont Langley passed light through a prism and

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discovered that the infrared light the scientists could not see beyond red could make other
things hot.
Very long wavelengths of infrared light radiate heat to outer space. This radiation is
important to the Earth's energy budget. If this energy did not escape to space, the solar
energy that the Earth absorbs would continue to heat the Earth.

Handout 3

Behaviour of waves

Image: Waves undergoing refraction

All waves behave in certain characteristic ways. They can undergo refraction,
reflection, interference and diffraction. These basic properties define the behaviour of
a wave anything that reflects, refracts, diffracts and interferes is labelled a wave.
These behaviours of waves can help us understand how water waves interact with
land. Out in the deep ocean, tsunamis and wind-generated waves settle to quite
steady predictable wave patterns. However, as they approach the complex coastline
of New Zealand, they can refract, diffract, be reflected and interfere with one
another. Together, these behaviours direct the course and effects of waves around
New Zealands coast.

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Refraction: when waves slow down and change direction

Refraction is the change in direction of a wave as it slows down. In shallower water
near the coast, waves slow down because of the force exerted on them by the
seabed. If a wave is approaching the coast at an angle, the nearshore part of the
wave slows more than the offshore part of the wave (because its in shallower
water). This is why the wavefront changes direction.
Refraction is the reason why surf waves often line up parallel to the beach. Even if
waves are coming in from deep water at an angle to the beach, the move to
shallower water means that the waves will slow down and curve around (refract) so
they are more parallel as the surf hits the beach.
Refraction is very important for tsunamis because (unlike other waves) they interact
with the seabed even in deep water so they are always undergoing refraction. This
affects the direction that the tsunami travels through the ocean. Tsunamis also
refract around land masses.

Reflection: when waves bounce back

Image: Waves bouncing off cliffs

Reflection of water waves at a coast is usually not an important part of their

behaviour, unless the coast has a steep cliff or a seawall. However, reflected waves
tend to interfere with the oncoming waves, and these patterns can be studied.
A tsunami wave can reflect off continental shelves, ocean ridges and large reefs
under the sea. Reflected tsunami waves off an ocean ridge to the west of Sri Lanka
and south-west of India contributed to the damage on the western side of Sri Lanka
during the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami.

Interference: when waves affect each other

When two waves travelling in different directions meet, they combine their energies
and form interference patterns. This can result in regions of very high waves when
they add up (constructive interference) alternating with regions of diminished or no
waves when they cancel out (destructive interference).
Interference is important for surfers because it affects the size of surf waves. When
two sets of swells with similar frequencies interact, they interfere with each other
and form groups. Within the groups, interference means that the wave height will
vary. Surfers can tell from the interference pattern which wave will be the biggest
(and the best to surf!), for example, every 7th wave.

Resonance: when waves slosh to and fro

A tsunami wave coming into a bay can cause the water in the whole bay to slosh
backwards and forwards. This is called resonance, and it happens when the
frequency of the tsunami wave is similar to the natural oscillating frequency

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(resonant frequency) of the body of water in the bay. Resonance can push the water
level really high, making the effect of the tsunami greater.
Different bodies of water have different resonant frequencies it depends on their
size and shape. Lyttelton Harbour and Mercury Bay (Coromandel) are both prone to
sloshing. Mercury Bay has a resonant frequency of 1 hour once it gets disturbed
by a tsunami, it will slosh backwards and forwards every hour, sometimes for several
days, before it dissipates.
Bigger, more open areas of water like the North Canterbury Bight and the South
Taranaki Bight can also amplify tsunami waves through resonance, but with longer
periods (for example, 2.5 hours in the North Canterbury Bight).

Diffraction: when waves bend

Image: Diffraction and interference

When waves get to a barrier such as an offshore rock or a small gap such as the
opening to a harbour, they dont go straight past the barrier or carry on straight after
going through the gap. Instead, they bend they curve outwards after passing
through a gap and spread around an object. This is diffraction. It happens when the
wavelength of the wave and the size of the gap or barrier are similar.
Diffraction is interesting to wave researchers because it means that wave energy
reaches shadow zones where you wouldnt otherwise expect energy to be. Its an
important part of wave behaviour at ports, harbours, built structures and offshore
islands. Diffraction is more important in shallow water than it is in deep water.

Nature of Science
Common scientific concepts can connect seemingly disparate areas of science. For
instance, water waves, sound waves and electromagnetic radiation all exhibit similar
behaviours. Some of the scientific knowledge obtained in one of these areas can
therefore be applied to the others.

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Handout 4

How long does it take sunlight to reach

the Earth?
Apr 15, 2013 by Fraser Cain, Universe Today

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12

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2013-04-sunlight-earth.html#jCp

Here's a question how long does it take sunlight to reach Earth? This sounds like a
strange question, but think about it. Sunlight travels at the speed of light. Photons emitted
from the surface of the Sun need to travel across the vacuum of space to reach our eyes.
Here's the math. We orbit the Sun at a distance of about 150 million km. Light moves at
300,000 kilometers/second. Divide these and you get 500 seconds, or 8 minutes and 20
seconds.
This is an average number. Remember, the Earth follows an elliptical orbit around the
Sun, ranging from 147 million to 152 million km. At its closest point, sunlight only takes
490 seconds to reach Earth. And then at the most distant point, it takes 507 seconds for
sunlight to make the journey.
But the story of light gets even more interesting, when you think about the journey light
needs to make inside the Sun.
You probably know that photons are created by fusion reactions inside the Sun's core.
They start off as gamma radiation and then are emitted and absorbed countless times in
the Sun's radiative zone, wandering around inside the massive star before they finally
reach the surface.
What you probably don't know, is that these photons striking your eyeballs were
ACTUALLY created tens of thousands of years ago and it took that long for them to be
emitted by the sun.
Once they escaped the surface, it was only a short 8 minutes for those photons to cross
the vast distance from the Sun to the Earth
As you look outward into space, you're actually looking backwards in time.

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The light you see from your computer is nanoseconds old. The light reflected from the
surface of the Moon takes only a second to reach Earth. The Sun is more than 8 lightminutes away. And so, if the light from the nearest star (Alpha Centauri) takes more than
4 years to reach us, we're seeing that star 4 years in the past.
There are galaxies millions of light-years away, which means the light we're seeing left
the surface of those stars millions of years ago. For example, the galaxy M109 is located
about 83.5 million light-years away.
If aliens lived in those galaxies, and had strong enough telescopes, they would see the
Earth as it looked in the past. They might even see dinosaurs walking on the surface.

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2013-04-sunlight-earth.html#jCp

Handout 5

Light (Level 8)

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While we can only directly perceive light with our visual systems, there are many other wavelengths of
electromagnetic radiation (and other forms of energy) that can be used to sense the environment
around us. The collected image data can then be rendered to displays that modulate light for us to
perceive (like the images you are looking at right now). This image provides a collage of images
collected at different wavelengths. In the center is a normal light image of a tree (below) with a
reflected infrared image above. This infrared image was made with wavelengths just slightly longer
than we can perceive. Notice how the sky is quite dark (not too much infrared scattered in the sky)
while the leaves and grass are very bright (healthy foliage reflects a lot of infrared energy). The image
of the house is a false-color representation of thermal infrared emission. This is even longerwavelength energy that we sometimes consider as "heat". The red areas are where there is a larger
amount of thermal infrared emission, or heat leaking through the rood of this house. On the right is a
medical X-Ray of someone's repaired knee. X-Rays are very high energy (short wavelength)
electromagnetic radiation that can pass through our soft tissue easily, but don't pass through bones so
easily, and can't pass through the metal pins at all. This X-ray image is a negative and is darker where
more energy passes through the subject. Finally, the upper-left image is an ultrasound image of my
first daughter about 5 months before she was born. This image was made with very high frequency
sound waves (vibrations of matter) that actually are not electromagnetic energy at all.

Why Can We Only See Visible Radiation?

In a way, the answer is simply a definition. Visible electromagnetic radiation, or light, is defined as the
wavelengths that we can directly perceive with our visual systems. The greater question is why our
visual systems evolved to respond to those particular wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation when
there is such a vast range of wavelengths in the full spectrum. For example, why don't we see X-rays,
or radio waves, or ultraviolet energy, or infrared wavelengths? Some insects actually do respond to
ultraviolet energy, so clearly it is possible.
The true answer is that there are probably many reasons, functioning in combination, that resulted in
our visual systems' functioning the way they do and responding to the range of wavelengths that they
do. These include both physiological and ecological reasons. Physiologically, ultraviolet radiation (UV)
is potentially very dangerous (and deadly) to biological tissue. Thus it would not serve us well to rely
on detection of dangerous radiation to function in day-to-day living. Ultraviolet radiation is sometimes
used to kill bacteria and other organisms. It would also damage our cells in a similar way. UV causes
sunburn and also contributes to the development of cataracts (opacity) in the lenses of our eyes.

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Shorter wavelengths have even higher energy levels and can potentially cause more damage and/or
pass right through us (like X-rays). So the UV end of the spectrum seems to be a reasonable limiting
factor at the short-wavelength end of the visual spectrum. At the longer wavelengths, we have infrared
radiation. It turns out that our body produces infrared energy simply because we are warm and that
background radiation makes it difficult to detect infrared radiation from the environment (sensors in
infrared cameras are cooled to very low temperatures for this reason). Thus visual noise might well be
the limiting factor at the long-wavelength end of the spectrum. Even longer wavelengths, like radiowaves are so long that they pass right through (or perhaps more correctly around) us as well and we
cannot detect them.
Ecologically, there are other reasons that narrow down the range of wavelengths we respond to
visually. For one, the sun's peak energy output is very highly correlated with the wavelengths of light
that we respond to. Thus we have a ready and plentiful source of energy to aid our visual perception.
Additionally, many of the interesting interactions between electromagnetic energy and the elements
and compounds we are made up of (as well as all the plants, animals, and objects we are interested in
perceiving) happen in the visible wavelengths. Since the objects we are interested in perceiving
modulate visible energy, and the cells we use to detect radiation are made of the same materials (and
therefore are readily capable of detecting the light), it only makes logical sense that we would respond
to these readily available and interesting wavelengths.
The bottom line is that we respond to the wavelengths we do because it is physiologically plausible for
our visual systems to do so and because the information provided by such visual systems is
tremendously useful to our survival.

Photography (Level 4)

The array of colors on the left part of this image represents a Bayer filter array (named after a Kodak
scientist who was one of the people to develop this particular arrangement of colors). This pattern of
filters is placed on top of a black and white image sensor to make each element of the sensor respond
to either red, green, or blue light. Notice that there are more green elements. This has to do with our
eyes' better sensitivity to fine detail in the green region of the light spectrum. The middle panel shows
a scene in Yosemite National Park and the rightmost panel shows how that scene would be sampled
by a typical digital camera with the individual red, green, and blue pixels (or picture elements). A lot of

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computer processing takes place to convert these raw detected images into the pictures that you enjoy
viewing.

How Do Digital Cameras Detect Colors?

The "heart" of a digital camera (or perhaps more accurately, the "retina") is a sensor array made out of
silicon. These sensors have small individual detectors (usually several million on a single sensor) that
respond to light that falls upon them. What happens is the energy in the light causes a small electrical
current in the detector at that particular location. That current is then measured electronically and
converted to digital values that represent the amount of light detected. Those digital values, indexed to
their location on the image, provide the information needed to draw an image on a computer monitor
or printer. However, the sensor itself responds to the whole visible spectrum of light energy and some
infrared energy as well. This overall response can only produce black and white images. To produce
color images, multiple sensors are required to detect and discriminate the different color regions of the
spectrum like our eyes do. The first step is to place an infrared filter in front of the sensor to get rid of
that energy that we cannot see at all.
The next step is to figure out how to separately detect red, green, and blue images in order to have all
the information needed to create the different colors we can see. One way to do this is to use three
image sensors and put red, green, and blue filters in front of each of the three respectively. This gives
us the needed red, green, and blue images, but it also makes the cameras very bulky and expensive
because three image sensors are required. Instead, most cameras use a filter array as illustrated in
the above picture. The filter array results in a single image sensor that has some pixels that respond to
each of the three red, green, blue, primary colors. Since we really want red, green, and blue
information at every location in the image, fairly complicated computer processing is done to convert
the detected image (with the filter array information superimposed) to a single full-color image. This
process is known as demosaicking since the filter array can be considered a mosaic of colors. There is
also a lot of other processing that goes on before we see the images to adjust the color, exposure,
contrast, sharpness, noise levels, and other image attributes.
Finally, the combination of the image sensor, the color filter array, and the computer processing result
in a set of three images. One represents the red information in the scene, one the green information,
and the third the blue information. These can be combined on monitors or printers to give us the
beautiful full-color images we are used to seeing when we simply push a button. This process is
theoretically the same one that Scottish scientist James Clerk Maxwell developed in the 1800s when
he is credited with inventing color photography (in reality he was trying to show that the human visual
system detects colors by separating the information into just three images corresponding roughly to
red, green, and blue information).

Handout 6
Light Behaviors Organizer

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What
Wavelength Goes
With Color?
Light waves
Present

Behaviour of
Waves

How Long Does

It Take Sunlight
To Reach The
Earth?

Why Is Color:
Light and
Photography

What factors influence a

light waves ability to
reflect or absorb?

Description of
Wavelength

Why do we see certain

colors and not others?

What are the different

types of wave behaviors?

Evidence of
Light Behavior
(interaction)

Evidence of
Location on
the EM
Spectrum

Description of
Light
Perceived

Why cant our eyes perceive

all light waves?

Handout 7
Questioning Cube
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How does wavelength

relate to energy and
frequency?

How do black and white

objects interact with light
waves differently?

Handout 8
Light Behaviors Image Sort

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Diffraction

Refraction

Reflection

Absorption

Images

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Handout 9
3-2-1

As you respond to the prompts below, use all words in the

Word Splash at least once.
3 ways relating wavelength, energy and frequency

2 ways light can reach our eyes

1 real world example (not previously described) of light

behaviors

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