Lesson Part
Activity description/Teacher does
Students do
Title
Lesson 2: Light Packet
State Standard
College Board: P-PE: 3.4.6 Compare and contrast the different bands of the electromagnetic
spectrum of radiant energy, in terms of energy, frequency, and wavelength.
Central Focus
(CF)
Make observations and perform calculations to provide evidence that light energy exists on
a spectrum and is quantized by the discrete energy levels of electrons.
Academic
Language
Observations, calculations, electromagnetic, spectrum, radiant,
energy, frequency, wavelength, lambda, nu, Planck’s constant
Learning
Target (LT)
I can identify all 10 bands of the electromagnetic spectrum based Students use the algebraic
on their respective energy, frequency, wavelength, and color.
relationships between energy,
frequency, and wavelength to
determine where on the
electromagnetic spectrum an
emission of light exists.
Instruction
(e.g. inquiry,
preview,
review, etc.)
Teacher stands in doorway to greet students by name.
As each student arrives, teacher directs his or her attention to
Students come into class, take
whiteboard. “As you come in, take out your notebooks and begin their seats, and begin answering
to work on today’s warm up.”
the questions on the warm-up
individually
The warm up projected on the whiteboard contains the first two
questions—the content questions—of the previous day’s exit
Students tend to follow the
ticket along with the entire electromagnetic spectrum.
actions of other students—this
is why I don’t ever wait for the
1. Determine which color on the visible spectrum carries
bell to ring to start class to
the highest amount of energy and which color contains
instruct students to begin
the lowest.
working on the warm up.
2. Make two separate calculations to either confirm or
refute your hypothesis.
Students raise their hands at
teachers command redirect
their attention to the front of the
room.
Students follow along with
review of warm-up and make
corrections as necessary. When
After seven minutes of class time has been given to work on the
problem, teacher retrieves classroom attention by saying “Raise
your hand if you can hear me.”
Once all students are listening, teacher begins going over the
warm-up.
Teacher asks class, “Based on what we learned yesterday
regarding the relationship between Energy, Frequency and
wavelength, which color on the visible spectrum has the lowest
energy?”
prompted, students answer
questions.
Student who is called upon
answers warm up question and
explains how they reached their
answer.
If student provides an answer, teacher asks: “How did you come
to that conclusion?”
If student answers with the correct color and a rational
explanation, teacher reaffirms student by saying they are correct,
restates the student’s answer and explanation to the rest of the
class and addresses a common misconception of the unit.
“[Students name] is exactly right! As you can see on the visible
spectrum, red is on the side of the visible spectrum with the
longest wavelength—about 7x10-7m. And as should recall,
energy is inversely proportional to wavelength. THIS IS THE
BIGGEST MISCONCEPTION OF THIS ENTIRE UNIT! A lot of
students get it worked in their heads that a long wave means
more energy when in fact it’s the opposite. Think about the
slinky demonstration from yesterday! The longer waves looked
long and lazy in comparison to the short, fast waves. Remember:
energy of a light wave depends on its frequency! Longer waves
are simply less frequent. Make a note of that and put a huge box
around it with some stars. Anything so it draws special attention
Class makes corrections to their
to itself. LONG WAVES = LOW ENERGY. Anyways, like [student
warm up and makes a special
name] said, if red is the lowest energy violet must be the highest.
LONG WAVES=LOW ENERGY
note in their notes.
Teacher asks a different student at random what the relative
length of a violet wave must be.
“[student’s name], if violet has high energy, is its wave going to
be longer or shorter than reds?
Pause for answer… correct student if they are wrong and
encourage them by saying that this really can be a confusing part
of the light and energy sequence.
Teacher finishes warm up coverage by conducting two
calculations proving the work.
Teacher explains that being able to relate wavelength to energy
is an essential skill in answering this question. Further, that
calculations can be completed to get an exact, quantitative
amount of energy for each type of light by implementing the
equation 𝐸 =
ℎ𝑐
.
𝜆
“One way to check if you’re conceptualizing this right is to do the
actual calculations—like #2 is asking you to do. Since we know
the range of wavelengths for red and violet light, we can pick a
band of each of them and make separate calculations. Combining
E=hv and v=hc/𝜆 we can use the equation 𝐸 =
ℎ𝑐
𝜆
to solve for the
energy of a violet band as well as a red band.”
Teacher conducts calculations and displays the answers:
4.97x10-19 J for violet
2.84x10-19 J for red
This review should come from the fact that most students will
have no idea how to do number two of the warm up. Based on
information gathered from previous periods that day, there was
a definite need for a math review. Students were having a very
difficult time rearranging equations to find specific variables.
That’s why instead of jumping straight into the warm up, I did a
math review by relating 6=2x to 𝐸 = ℎ𝜈. Almost every student
was comfortable with 6=2x, but when you turn numbers into
variables students become uncomfortable. That’s why I walked
them through that connection at the beginning of class.
Teacher first asks if there are any questions about the warm up
recap.
Informal “Does anyone have any additional questions about what I just
Assessment did?”
Once questions have been asked and answered, teacher asks for
a 0-5 to be held on their chests to assess how comfortable
Students ask any questions that
may have come up during the
warm up recap.
Students show the teacher 0-5
fingers by holding them on their
chest for a private informal
everyone in class was with the warm up.
assessment.
Teacher moves on if most students are a 4 or 5.
If there is more than one student showing a 3 or lower, teacher
verbally recounts everything he has written on the whiteboard
through class so far, urging students to ask questions the
moment they become confused.
Practice
Activity
Support
Teacher now divides students into new groups based on their
exit tickets from the day before. Grouping will be based on:
1. Mastery of learning target from lesson 1—meaning
students who circled 4’s or 5’s on meeting the learning
target from the day before will be divided up evenly. As
will students who circled 1’s and 2’s.
2. Classroom management. Teacher will assess which
students work well together and which do not.
Students begin working on the
packet in newly assigned
groups.
Teacher explains that the rest of the period will be spent working
on a group packet.
Teacher explains every group member will receive the same
score on the packet—encouraging collaboration.
Teacher spends the majority of the remainder of class facilitating
progress with the packet. Teacher believes in the power of the
learning process so tries not to “helicopter” too closely above
group work, but asks occasional prompting questions such as:
Informal “How is everything going over here?”
Assessment
“Are things still running smoothly at this table?”
“Are you guys having any trouble with any of the questions?”
Otherwise, the teacher will stand back and wait to be summoned
by a confused group or student.
Students work together to
complete the packet—using
information given on the first
page on the circulating teacher
as resources.
Practice
Activity
Support
Through out the period, teacher periodically takes groups aside
to complete #6 of the packet, which involves a hands on group
activity where the class constructs the visible spectrum.
Students pause their progress
on packet and complete number
6 of the packet.
1. #6: In your groups, log onto ONE computer and go
to this website:
http://jersey.uoregon.edu/vlab/elements/Eleme
nts.html. Once there, each member needs to
click on their individually assigned element on
the periodic table. Here you should see an
absorption or emission spectrum. Click
“emission” and select one band of light emitted
by your element. On the piece of paper on the
whiteboard in front of the room, draw this band
in its correct location on the visible spectrum.
Calculate the energy associated with its
wavelength. On top of the band you draw, write
the value of its wavelength. On the bottom of the
band label its energy. Try and select your color
based on what colors you don’t already see on
the piece of paper and/or by having each group
member choose a different color.
Show the calculation of energy you made for the
color you chose.
This activity is what made this a two day packet. I couldn’t get all
the groups to get through researching and drawing lines on the
piece of paper. I need to find a different place to put this
activity… and the earlier the better because it was actually really
good having this thing hanging up in the classroom as a
reference.
Exit Ticket
Closure One conceptual question and three student voice questions will
Assessment conclude the day’s lesson. A completed (based on effort) exit
ticket is the students’ ticket out the door.
Students complete exit ticket
and hand it to the teacher on
their way out of the classroom.