How fast does light travel in water?
Description:
This activity is geared towards high school level as it incorporates the Pythagorean Theorem and the relationship between distance, time, and rate. The students read a short passage before starting the activity in order to acquire background knowledge of light and activate prior knowledge. The students could make their own set-up or it could be set-up beforehand by the teacher. This activity is a structured inquiry based learning activity. Students are given the question (How fast does light travel in water?), the general procedure of the activity, and the materials, but they need to solve the question themselves. The students first use critical thinking and problem solving to develop a formula for light's speed in water, and then they test out their hypotheses.
Reflection:
This problem is one of my favorites because it is a problem that is challenging to understand without being hands on. Once the materials and hands on procedures are introduced the problem becomes easier to comprehend and fun to do. Although I plan to teach elementary school, this problem could be simplified to demonstrate how light refracts in water rather than it's speed in water. This activity would work best with students in small groups where every student has a different job, so they all have partial responsibility for the activity. It could be used to introduce the concepts of light's change in speed in different materials, or to enforce the ideas. Personally, if given the opportunity, I would do this activity at the end to enforce the knowledge students have of light's speed and behavior. Then if there was time, I would have the students change one of the variables, like the water depth, to show enforce the ideas even more.
This activity is geared towards high school level as it incorporates the Pythagorean Theorem and the relationship between distance, time, and rate. The students read a short passage before starting the activity in order to acquire background knowledge of light and activate prior knowledge. The students could make their own set-up or it could be set-up beforehand by the teacher. This activity is a structured inquiry based learning activity. Students are given the question (How fast does light travel in water?), the general procedure of the activity, and the materials, but they need to solve the question themselves. The students first use critical thinking and problem solving to develop a formula for light's speed in water, and then they test out their hypotheses.
Reflection:
This problem is one of my favorites because it is a problem that is challenging to understand without being hands on. Once the materials and hands on procedures are introduced the problem becomes easier to comprehend and fun to do. Although I plan to teach elementary school, this problem could be simplified to demonstrate how light refracts in water rather than it's speed in water. This activity would work best with students in small groups where every student has a different job, so they all have partial responsibility for the activity. It could be used to introduce the concepts of light's change in speed in different materials, or to enforce the ideas. Personally, if given the opportunity, I would do this activity at the end to enforce the knowledge students have of light's speed and behavior. Then if there was time, I would have the students change one of the variables, like the water depth, to show enforce the ideas even more.
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