Featured

Main Information

Grade level

8th grade

artifact category

Class Discussion, Demo or Simulation

Storyline chapter

Chapter 5

scientific practices

Constructing explanations (for science) and designing solutions (for engineering)

Engaging in argument from evidence

Obtaining, communicating, and evaluating information

crosscutting concepts

Patterns

Cause and Effect

Energy and Matter

disciplinary core ideas

PS4.A: Wave Properties

Artifact Description

In this classroom activity, students are engaged in a science talk in small groups about what they have learned about the wave properties of wavelength, frequency, and amplitude; how (if at all) they are related to one another; and how they relate to energy.

These summative discussions occurred after two exploratory tasks, the first connecting different types of sounds to mathematical representations and the second examining how energy is transferred through several wave demonstrations.

Student Thinking

This video (Artifact A) shows a small group of students attempting to articulate and make sense of wave properties and how they relate to one another. Notice how the first student mentions the “pattern” of waves, while having trouble articulating his thinking with specificity. A second student describes amplitude, equating it to the “amount of energy” of the wave pattern, and specifically linking this to how physical particles transfer energy by “causing whatever objects it hits to move.” A third student defines wavelength and frequency, and then talks aloud to make the conceptual connection for the relationship between the two.

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6. How Waves Transfer Energy Demos

Main Information

Artifact Description

Student Thinking

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