Objectives for Light Waves and Color
Lesson Plans || Learning Outcomes and Activities || Teacher Notes || Labs
The list below displays sample learning objectives for the unit on Light Waves and Color. The various activities from the Lesson Plans have been organized by objective. This format of organizing The Physics Classroom's activities may be more useful to some teachers than the Lesson Plan format. It is worth noting that the activities identified below only include those activities included on the Lesson Plans and in the Pre-Built Task Tracker courses. Additional activities are referenced on the Teacher Notes page.
1. Wave Nature of Light
Describe the evidence for the wave nature of light and the limitations of the wave model in explaining phenomenon such as the photoelectric effect.
Reading:
Video:
Science Reasoning Center Activity:
Physics Interactives:
2. Polarization
Compare and contrast polarized and unpolarized light, describe the effect of a Polaroid filter on light, and discuss the various means by which unpolarized light can become polarized.
Reading:
Video:
Think Sheets:
Physics Interactives:
Minds On Physics:
3. Light Intensity
Predict the effect of the power of the light source and the distance from the light source upon the intensity of light on a surface some distance away.
Video:
Labs:
Lab 1: Diluted by Distance
Science Reasoning Activity:
Concept Builders:
4. Two-Point Source Interference
Explain when and why a two-point source light interference pattern is created and use Young's equation to analyze a pattern to determine the wavelength of light.
Reading:
Video:
Labs:
Lab 2: Two-Point Source Analysis
Lab 3: Young's Experiment
Physics Interactives with Concept Checkers:
Think Sheets:
CalcPad Problem Sets:
5. Electromagnetic Spectrum and Visible Light Spectrum
Identify the patterns associated with wavelength, frequency, and energy/photon for the various regions of the electromagnetic and visible light spectra.
Reading:
Video:
Think Sheets:
Science Reasoning Activity:
Minds On Physics:
Mission LC1 on Electromagnetic and Visible Light Spectrum
6. Color Addition
Describe the mechanisms by which the eye perceives color, identify the three primary colors of light, and discuss how primary colors of light can mix in varying intensities to produce the
millions of colors the eye can perceive.
Reading:
Video:
Think Sheets:
Physics Interactives with Concept Checkers:
Concept Builders:
7. Color Subtraction
Use the incident-absorbed-reflected model to explain and predict the color appearance of objects when the incident colors of light and the imparted pigments are known.
Reading:
Video:
Labs:
Lab 4: Taking Away From RGB
Think Sheets:
Physics Interactives with Concept Checkers:
Concept Builders:
Minds On Physics:
8. Filters
Use the incident-absorbed-transmitted model to explain and predict the color appearance of objects when the viewed through a specific colored filter.
Reading:
Video:
Labs:
Lab 5: Filtering Away
Think Sheets:
Concept Builders:
Minds On Physics:
Review Activities
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