Unpacked Content
Scientific and Engineering Practices
Developing and Using Models
Crosscutting Concepts
Patterns
Knowledge
Students know:
- Waves can be described in terms of patterns of repeating amplitude and wavelength (e.g., in a water wave there is a repeating pattern of water being higher and then lower than the baseline level of the water).
- Waves can cause an object to move.
- The motion of objects varies with the amplitude and wavelength of the wave carrying it.
- The patterns in the relationships between a wave passing, the net motion of the wave, and the motion of an object caused by the wave as it passes.
- How waves may be initiated (e.g., by disturbing surface water or shaking a rope or spring).
- The repeating pattern produced as a wave is propagated.
- Waves, which are the regular patterns of motion, can be made in water by disturbing the surface. When waves move across the surface of deep water, the water goes up and down in place; there is no net motion in the direction of the wave except when the water meets a beach.
- Waves of the same type can differ in amplitude (height of the wave) and wavelength (spacing between wave peaks).
Skills
Students are able to:
- Develop a model to make sense of wave patterns that includes relevant components (i.e., waves, wave amplitude, wavelength, and motion of objects).
- Describe patterns of wavelengths and amplitudes.
- Describe how waves can cause objects to move.
Understanding
Students understand that:
- There are similarities and differences in patterns underlying waves and use these patterns to describe simple relationships involving wave amplitude, wavelength, and the motion of an object.
Vocabulary
- Patterns
- Propagated
- Waves
- Wave amplitude
- Wavelength
- Net motion
- Model
- Relevant components
- Peaks
