Exploring Sound and Light

Funded Jan 28, 2015

A few days ago we received our first shipment of materials and we were eager to start exploring. Students walked in and saw the refraction tank and were curious about what it does and where it came from. They looked over the tank and of course, were fascinated by the laser, especially the way it creates a line instead of a dot, like they had seen before.

Students spent the past two days exploring how the laser's beam is changed by the water in the tank. We examined how the laser beam shone across. Once water was added to the tank, students moved the laser beam around to explore how light is refracted. They noticed how the beam appeared "broken" and the number of degrees of the angle changed. We also used were able to see an example of the law of refraction by shining the laser up from underneath the water. Students were able to measure and determine that the angle of incidence was the same as the angle of reflection.

We also used the diffraction gratings, examining how different light sources appear when looking through the grating. We charted the colors that appear from each light source, and drew conclusions about the light from each source, such as a candle, a flashlight, a light bulb, fluorescent lights and sunlight from the window.

My students seemed to learn a lot about diffraction, refraction and reflection by using these materials, thank you again for helping me obtain them.”

With gratitude,

Ms. Goldberg