WAVES
Students will be able to explore wave properties and behavior, use frequency and wavelength to assess wave applications in SAR, and communicate how technological devices use wave interactions to transmit and capture information and energy.
Overview
Students explore wave properties and how frequency and wavelength determine usefulness in synthetic aperture radar (SAR). The lesson opens with a spot-the-difference task and readings on using SAR to find a lost city beneath the sand. Students rotate through stations on mechanical waves and the electromagnetic spectrum, then research an assigned wave type from video resources and present its properties and applications, followed by a wave interference lab. In the culminating task, groups complete a graphic organizer on the abilities and limitations of each wave type and write a proposal, including a budget, for protecting military sites from foreign detection, presented to a panel of "generals."
Lesson Objectives
- Explore the properties and behavior of waves. Students will be able to use frequency and wavelength of a wave to determine its usefulness in SAR and determine appropriate frequencies to appropriate uses. Students will be able to communicate technical information on how technological devices use wave behavior and interactions with matter to transmit and capture information and energy.
Standards
NGSS · 2
- HS-PS4-4Evaluate the validity and reliability of claims in published materials of the effects that different frequencies of electromagnetic radiation have when absorbed by matter.
- HS-PS4-5Communicate technical information about how some technological devices use the principles of wave behavior and wave interactions with matter to transmit and capture information and energy.*
CCSS Math · 2
- HSG-MG.A.1Use geometric shapes, their measures, and their properties to describe objects (e.g., modeling a tree trunk or a human torso as a cylinder).*
- HSG-MG.A.3Apply geometric methods to solve design problems (e.g., designing an object or structure to satisfy physical constraints or minimize cost; working with typographic grid systems based on ratios).*
CCSS ELA · 1
- RI.9-10.10By the end of grade 9, read and comprehend literary nonfiction in the grades 9-10 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range. By the end of grade 10, read and comprehend literary nonfiction at the high end of the grades 9-10 text complexity band independently and proficiently.