Margaret M. Loos
The technologies of light production have changed the world profoundly. The twenty-four hour day has shaped a twenty-four hour economy and the lives of the industrial and post-industrial societies have been forever transformed. The relative merits of this transformation may be argued, but the suggestion that we return to the limitations of a daylight controlled existence would, at best, raise eyebrows in concern for the sanity of the suggester.
Light is the ultimate facilitator of sighted, visually educated beings. In order to better understand light, I have proposed several areas of investigation to be used in eighth grade earth science and ninth grade physical science classes. Each area will involve some instruments that relate to light and vision or some mathematics directly or indirectly associated with light technologies.
The
objectives
of this unit will be to:
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1. To demonstrate the role that lighting plays in the lives of the students.
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2. To demonstrate what can be learned about light by the use of prisms and lenses.
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3. To demonstrate the nature of wave motion.
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4. To introduce the dual nature of light.
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5. To demonstrate the construction and functioning of the eye.
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6. To demonstrate the principles of light manipulating devices such as eyeglasses, the telescope and the microscope, and how they extend the range of what man can see.
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7. To present the background of today’s light technology.
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8. To investigate new light technologies and their promise and possible effects on the future of the students’ lives.
When one teacher presents her strategies for the development of any unit it is with the understanding that each of her colleagues will have those gifts by which he/she will make the unit peculiarly his or her own. The strategies that I choose to employ for “light” are:
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1. The chief strategy, throughout the unit will be to provide as many hands-on activities and experiences with light as possible.
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2. To emphasize the importance of keeping records of experiments and investigations, each student will be required to keep a small notebook of his/her activities throughout the unit. He/she will be encouraged to expand on classroom activities through readings, short reports, and perusal of current publications, articles and news releases.
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3. Throughout the unit information about scientists and philosophers who contributed to our present understanding of light will be presented to instill appreciation for that special curiosity and approach to finding answers to their questions that marks the inventive mind.
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4. To use models and diagrams to represent aspects of light behavior for comparison and interpretation. Students will be required to also do some drawings of apparatus or patterns of light behavior.
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5. Demonstrations will be given by the teacher for certain “labs” where it is appropriate.
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6. We will use community resources whenever possible, perhaps an optician, or a speaker from the Yale Speakers’ Bureau.
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7. Notes will be given periodically to give body to the unit.
Much of the optical material mentioned in this unit will be collected in a kit designated for this light study and which will be on file at the office of the Yale New Haven Teachers’ Institute Office at 43 Wall Street in New Haven. Others may be purchased through the Edmund Scientific Company, Barrington, New Jersey. A copy of their catalog is also in the kit box.
