Photon Engineers

Directions and discussion prompts are included in the presentation slides.

Students will work in small groups to sort the cards in the handout: ➚ Magnification Technologies Timeline Puzzle

The "What Are Lenses?" video (▶ Engineering with Light: 2000 Years of Innovation) is embedded in the presentation slides with break points for discussion and reflection questions. Students can follow along with the discussion by taking notes on their worksheet.

Students discuss in groups to determine what kind of glasses should go to far- or nearsighted people, recording the answers on their worksheets. They check their answer and learn more about corrective eyeware with a video.

In the space provided on their worksheets, students answer several reflection questions related to lens design and optical engineering.

If needed, students can watch the videos again at home to double check their answers.

Students practice creating waves with various amplitudes and frequencies. Detailed instructions are in the teacher key.

The wave activity provides an introduction to waves, defining the pieces of a wave through cooperative body movement. Students follow along by taking notes on their worksheet.

The student worksheet has space for students to rank how certain they are about whether or not a light-candidate is light, as well as room to notice similarities or surprises.

Students work together to design a code with three simple messages. The activity culminates in sending the secret messages from one side of the room to the other. Detailed instructions for this activity are in the teacher worksheet.

From Morse code, to AM and FM radio, all the way to WiFi and Bluetooth, encoding messages in light has helped us send information faster and farther than ever before. With a nod to actress-inventor Hedy Lamarr, and technology we use every day, this wrap up discussion highlights the prevalence of light-communication all around us.

Presented with an array of technological devices, students discuss amongst themselves whether the device uses light.

When a glass beaker is inserted to a larger beaker full of oil, the small beaker seemingly disappears! Students brainstorm why this could be the case, and learn that transparent materials manipulate the path of light.

Students are divided into groups and provided a straw and a glass of water. When inserted in the water, the straw appears to break at the surface between the water and air! Working individually, then in pairs, students develop and refine a model to explain the phenomenon.

The presentation introduces key vocabulary terms and builds some intuition for understand why light slows down inside media.

Guided by the presentation, students work in pairs to explore how different combinations of media influence the reflection and refraction of light. They follow along by making observations and answering questions on their worksheet.

Spark interest in photonics technology with the example of naturally occuring calcite crystals that can cause an image to appear doubled! The video ends by asking students to dream big and imagine how they might want to manipulate light.

Connect the new concepts from Lesson 5 with the lens technology introduced in Lessons 1 and 2, then reflect on light phenomena that occur in daily life.