Diffraction Teacher Resources

Waves, waves, and more waves. Here, class members look at the many types and characteristics of energy waves including transverse, longitudinal, standing, seismic, p-waves, s-waves, and l-waves. 

Shed some light on the nature of shadows! Science sleuths investigate a 200-year-old theory that light will form a bright spot in the center of a sphere's or circle's shadow with a video from Veritasium. The resource explains the...

Seeing is believing! But, how can something as tiny as an atom be made visible? Explore the history of the atom with a video from the American Chemical Society's Reactions playlist. Content includes early concepts of the atom, as well as...

Build a spectrometer to analyze properties of light. Scholars examine the spectrum from CDs and DVDs from two different light sources. Using the spectrum, they work to identify different elements.

Looking for instruction that seems more like wizardry? Look no further! Show your scholars some pretty amazing light experiments using a video from a comprehensive science playlist. The narrator performs and explains three simple yet...

A spectacular spectrograph awaits. A fun lesson has scholars build a spectrograph from an oatmeal container. They then use their devices to investigate the spectra of different light sources. They record their observations on a worksheet...

Students examine rainbow components, spectral colors, colors perceived by the eye, hot solids, glowing rarefied gas, absorption, that light is a wave, and optics.

Young scholars investigate the properties of elements and periodicity. In this periodicity lesson plan, students observe a bag of 'elements' which are different fruits and classify them in groups and periods, show the periodic...

Human fingerprint patterns are the result of layers of skin growing at different paces, thus causing the layers to pull on each other forming ridges. Here, groups of learners see how patterns and fingerprints assist scientists in a...

Break down light into spectra. Scholars learn how atoms emit and absorb photons and come to understand how this process allows scientists to identify different atoms based on either absorption lines or emission lines. Learners then...

Design a mission over the rainbow. Small groups spend several weeks together determining a mission related to spectroscopy. The teams build spectrographs and analyze the design to determine whether it will carry out the mission. At the...

Sixth graders observe light being separated into a color spectrum.  In this electromagnetic lesson students use a diffraction grating to separate light and compare light sources. 

Students are introduced to the wave nature of light. In groups, they discuss Young's experiment and how diffraction and interference demonstrate the wave nature of light. Using examples, they show constructive and destructive...

Twelfth graders research physical and chemical methods used in authenticating paintings (e.g., ultraviolet fluorescence and spectroscopy, infrared spectroscopy and reflectography, X-ray diffraction, microscopy, pigment analysis, and gas...

Students use experiments such as electron diffraction that show that particle have a wavelike nature. When they are fired through a thin slit, rather than scattering like hard spheres they interfere like waves. Students see that the...

Students explore the relevance and importance of data collection and analysis techniques that use different parts of the electromagnetic spectrum. They observe the basic concepts of the visible electromagnetic spectrum and the...

Assist your emerging scientists with construction of their very own spectroscopes. Individuals construct a spectroscope to identify elements used in varying lights within a particular environment. They conclude the activity with a...

This well-designed presentation covers many important aspects of the science behind light. In it, pupils view slides that have a lot of the important vocabulary associated with science, slides of famous scientists who made important...

What an exciting lab experiment to conduct with your high school chemistry class! Crystals are formed naturally in the environment. However, allow your blossoming chemists to create their own unique crystals using alum and...

View LED lights through the eyes of a scientist. Young scholars learn to view light as a wave frequency and connect various frequencies to different colors on the light spectrum. A lab activity asks groups to measure the frequency of...

Assist your class with this colorful activity as students view and interpret changes in the hydrogen atom. They discuss concepts of the electromagnetic spectrum and use Bohr's model to predict wavelengths and light patterns,...

Do you have blossoming astronomers who seek to understand the electromagnetic spectrum? Assist them with exploring electromagnetic radiation and the electromagnetic spectrum as the class conducts various activities to demonstrate...

You matter, unless you multiply yourself by the speed of light ... then you energy. Presentation covers the behavior of light as both a wave and a particle, light versus sound, space travel, why objects have colors, depth perception,...

The second installment of a seven-part series focuses on the refraction of light and how it affects the colors we see. Learners consider how this concept connects to biosensors for cancer detection.