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Teacher Notes for Refraction and Lenses

 

Lesson Plans || Learning Outcomes and Activities || Teacher Notes || Labs


 

Unit Overview

We would suggest that 12 days on this topic would be necessary to cover all Learning Outcomes. An additional day can be added for an end-of-unit test. There are three primary goals:
 
  1. To understand the conceptual and mathematical nature of light refraction at the boundary between two media.
  2. To understand the conditions under which light undergoes total internal reflection at a boundary or undergoes partial reflection and partial refraction at a boundary.
  3. To use qualitative and quantitative approaches to describe how the object distance affects the image characteristics for converging and diverging lenses.
The first 5 days will be devoted to refraction principles. This can be followed by 2 days for the discussion of total internal reflection and the critical angle. The last 5 days are devoted to lenses.


 

Other Resources

There are a few resources that we did not list in our Lesson Plans and Learning Outcomes and Activities that you may find to be very helpful. These include:
 
  1. Physics Interactives: Least Time Principle
    Students explore the Principle of Least Time and its relationship to the values of the angle of incidence and the angle of refraction. Includes a Student Activity Sheet.
  2. Science Reasoning Center: Snell's Law
    Students strive to understand the design of an experiment; predict the outcome of performing the experiment in a different manner; identify the qualitative relationship among variables; combine two or more data presentations in order to develop appropriate conclusions; and use a model in order to analyze information and draw appropriate conclusions.
  3. Science Reasoning Center: Reflection and Transmission
    Students identify the effect of one variable on another variable; select information from two or more data presentations; make a prediction based on two or more data presentations; interpolate and extrapolate from a grap; compare data chosen from two or more graphs; and use known data to make a prediction regarding an untested scenario.
  4. Science Reasoning Center: Lens Magnification Lab
    Students determine the effect of one variable upon another variable; select information from a table or graph; interpret a complex diagram; draw conclusions that are consistent with two or more data presentations; interpolate and extrapolate from a table or a graph; and make predictions based upon a model.


 

Teacher Presentation Pack

Our Teacher Presentation Pack is loaded with a collection of Slide Decks, Lesson Notes, and animations for use in your classroom. Once downloaded, they are fully modifiable and customizable. They would allow you to quickly pull up a Slide for discussion in class or to show a quick animation. Slide Decks and Lesson Notes can be modified, placed on Google Drive for student use (provided you have password-protected it from the general public), or copied and distributed to students. We believe it is a worthwhile investment, particularly if you are an early-career or cross-over Physics teacher. Learn more.


 

Also Available ...

Physics teachers may find the following for-sale tools to be useful supplements to our Lesson Plan and Pacing Guide section:

 

  1. Task Tracker Subscription (annual purchase)
    A subscription allows teachers to set up classes, add students, customize online assignments, view student progress/scores, and export student scores. Task Tracker accounts allow your students to begin assignments in class or at school and to finish them at home. View our Seat and Cost Calculator for pricing details.
     
  2. The Solutions Guide
    We publish a free curriculum with >200 ready-to-use Think Sheets for developing physics concepts. The Solutions Guide is a download containing the source documents, PDFs of source documents, and answers/solutions in MS Word and PDF format. An expanded license agreement is included with the purchase. (Cost: $25 download)
     
  3. Teacher Presentation Pack
    This is a large collection of downloadable content packed with nearly 190 Microsoft PowerPoint slide decks, the corresponding Lesson Notes (as PDF and fully-modifiable MS Word format), about 170 animations (in .gif, .png, and .mp4 file formats), a countless number of ready-to-use images (including the original source documents that would allow for easy modification of those images), and a license that allows teachers to modify and use all the content with their classes on password-protected sites (such as course management systems).  (Cost: $40 download)
     
  4. Question Bank
    We distribute a Question Bank that includes more than 9300 questions neatly organized according to topic. The Question Bank is the perfect tool for busy teachers or new teachers. Even if you don't use the website with your classes, the Question Bank will assist you in quickly putting together quizzes, tests and other documents with high-quality questions that target student's conceptions of physics principles. And if you do use The Physics Classroom website, the Question Bank is the perfect complement to the materials found at the website. (Cost: $25 download)