Submitted by: Kathryn Brock
School: Varina High School
Summary
Students learned about how emission spectra are created (electrons absorbing energy and then releasing it as light, with frequency/wavelength of the light determined by how much energy was released) and used prior knowledge of electron configurations and their pattern on the periodic table. In this lesson, students observed complete emission spectra for most of the elements of the periodic table and formulated their own ideas about trends in emission spectra that might occur across periods and down groups on the periodic table, and correspond to electron configuration. Students proposed hypotheses to address their analysis. Then students compiled class data, incorporated it into a graphic presentation, and reviewed the trends they proposed.
TIPC Ratings
Approaching: This lesson incorporates only a small amount of research and information fluency, but at the approaching level, students assemble and organize information for an authentic task. The task is the formulation of a hypothesis concerning emission spectra trends; the information assembled and organized is collected from the interactive periodic table.
Approaching: This lesson incorporates communication and collaboration at the target level, as students experience the methods professional scientists use to collect and analyze data, and then collaborate with other scientists to propose hypotheses and interpret data. In the process of class discussion, students establish groups and roles to accomplish the task and share their data digitally.
Target: This lesson incorporates critical thinking and problem solving at the target level, as students use individual methods to evaluate each emission spectrum and select the data to record. After their individual data is recorded, students address the challenges of compiling a class set of data that all students believe is accurate and reflects their own data. This directly reflects the experiences of professional scientists as they collaborate and address challenges encountered in data anomalies and differences of interpretation.
Approaching:The lesson incorporates creativity and innovation at the approaching level, as students synthesize their prior knowledge of the characteristics and behavior of electrons and emission spectra in order to propose hypotheses and identify trends they have observed in those areas. It should be noted that I could find no information about identified trends in atomic spectra, so students were not collecting data to support or refute already existing ideas, but were creating original hypotheses and identifying new trends. The final presentation represents a truly authentic task, so authentic that it can only be evaluated based on the student’s own hypothesis and data.
Student Artifact
Student Sample #2: Emission Spectra Lab
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Contents:
- LESSON PLAN
- STUDENT ARTIFACTS
