Making Waves

January 13, 2015

Tami O'Connor, Educational Innovationsby: Tami O’Connor

Energy is transported by waves.  That’s an important concept to teach students, but it’s not always an easy one for them to understand. At the beginning of our unit on the electromagnetic spectrum, my class and I made wave models so they could all see and understand how waves work.

The kids loved this activity when we did it in class and, when I run into former students, some tell me they still have their wave models hanging from their ceilings more than 10 years after we made them!

Materials:

  • Popsicle Sticks
  • Kite String
  • Low Melt Glue Gun
  • Ruler or Yard Stick
  • Tape
  • Pen, Pencil, or Marker

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1 Comment | Elementary level, energy, experiments, High School level, Middle School level, Physics | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Tami O'Connor

UV Radiation Activity

March 25, 2013

Tami O'Connor, Educational Innovationsby: Tami O’Connor

The sun is our primary source of ultraviolet radiation, however, there are a number of artificial sources of UV light including black lights, tanning beds and mercury vapor lamps. Ultraviolet radiation is usually considered to be a bad thing for very good reasons.

Generally speaking, there are three types of UV radiation here on Earth: UVA, UVB and UVC. Though the most destructive, UVC is almost never seen in nature because the earth’s atmosphere absorbs all of it. Though less destructive, overexposure to UVB can lead to all kinds of maladies including sunburn, some forms of skin cancer and cataracts. Read the rest of this entry »

1 Comment | Biology, Earth Science, Elementary level, energy, experiments, High School level, Middle School level | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Tami O'Connor