The video of Artifact A captures students running the simulation at Station 3, in which a slinky is manipulated to simulate a transverse wave. Students observe that the wave is moving up and down, going from “bumpy” to “flat” and back to “bumpy” again. Notice the connections at the end of the video to a heartbeat monitor or a seismograph, which are other graphical representations of regular patterns of motion. 

The videos of Artifacts B and C capture students participating in Station 4, in which a slinky is manipulated to simulate a longitudinal wave. In Artifact B, a student remarks “I feel the vibrations,” extending the connection between waves and vibrations generally. In Artifact C, a student describes the motion of a compression wave as a part of the material “being stuck together and pulling apart.”

The organizers of Artifacts D, E, and F reveal how students are representing these physical representations on paper. Each describes transverse waves as snake-like, with Artifact F further clarifying that “when I moved it slow, it looked like it was just going up and down.” Each uses different language to describe the observation of the compression moving through the slinky material; interestingly, Artifact F terms this moving compression an “energy wave.” 

There is limited evidence from these artifacts to suggest that students are connecting these simulations to the ways in which waves can move through matter (whether the metal coils of a slinky, water, or air particles) in repeated or regular patterns.