Teach Engineering: Quantifying Refraction

In this activity, students tackle this aspect of engineering as they solve problems for precise angles and speeds, and predict data output when samples are altered.

Through this concluding lesson and its associated activity, students experience one valuable and often overlooked skill of successful scientists and engineers- communicating work and ideas. Students create posters depicting their...

Class members discover how mathematics can quantify the behavior of light waves with the fourth installment of a seven-part series that teaches future engineers about equations related to refraction, including the equation to...

Students determine the refractive index of a liquid with a simple technique using a semi-circular hollow block. Then they predict the refractive index of a material (a Pyrex glass tube) by matching it with the known refractive index of a...

Students learn that color swirls on the bubble surfaces are caused by refraction. Then they apply this theory to thin films in general, including porous films used in biosensors, listing factors that could change the color that become...

Students are introduced to the concept of refraction. After making sure they understand the concepts of diffraction and interference, students work collaboratively to explain optical phenomena that cannot be accounted for via these two...

In this activity, students create posters which explain and illustrate thin film refraction and the factors that influence it. The goal is to explain the experimental results of using an optical biosensor, and prove these results with a...

A seven-lesson unit where students learn the concepts of refraction and interference in order to solve this engineering challenge: In 2013, actress Angelina Jolie underwent a double mastectomy, not because she had been diagnosed with...

In this project, students are challenged to answer the question "Is there a way to detect the presence of tumors that isn't as painful as mammography but more reliable and quantifiable than a breast-self exam or clinical breast-exams?"....

Students teams use a laparoscopic surgical trainer to perform simple laparoscopic surgery tasks (dissections, sutures) using laparoscopic tools. Just like in the operating room, where the purpose is to perform surgery carefully and...