Exploring the Electromagnetic Spectrum

One of the topics I have to cover with my students is the electromagnetic spectrum. It’s not easy getting them interested in it based on what it in their textbooks, and no wonder. The information is wordy, larded with unfamiliar terms that have little day to day use, and the two dimensional static pictures do very little to convey the information in a way that makes sense to visually oriented learners.

One of the sites I’ve heard mentioned quite a number of times since I’ve been at Walden has been BrainPop, so I finally took a good look at it. They have a wonderful set of videos and activities on all aspects of electricity and magnetism, including of course the electromagnetic spectrum. I know my students would get involved in the activities found there, and would even take the little quizzes, which I could use as informal assessments, opportunities to see where I need to reinforce teaching; or even as extra credit.

The challenge with using the program is two-fold: first and foremost is the cost. Our school does have one laptop cart which I can use on a rotating basis, but it is extremely unlikely that our budget would be able to pay the cost for the “laptop cart” license. It’s hard for me to get funding for anything for science that is not in the district mandated curriculum, since science is not counted toward our school’s “AYP” score. Any money not already spoken for goes to support extras for reading and math, which are the big two in our state’s high stakes testing. (There are ways to try to get it funded by applying for grants; I will have to see if I can have any success that way.)

The second problem has to do with the state of our laptops. They are already extremely shopworn, and we just don’t have enough to go around for an entire class. Also, there are four classes vying for their use at all times. So this presents an ongoing challenge for use of technology in our classrooms. It’s really a shame, since our students come from low SES homes, and need high tech education even more than their more fortunate peers, who are likely to have access to good technological resources outside of school and to have technologically savvy parents. One of the intentions of public schooling is to level the playing field for all students, but we still aren’t there yet, despite good intentions and some progress.

There are free sites that I can use also, NASA has some good material, unfortunately much of it is written well above the reading levels of my middle years students, and they don’t have the “catchy” animations of BrainPop, but they are free and have no advertising. The BBC has some interactive game-type programs that allow students to manipulate mirrors and reflections. This is aimed at slightly younger students, but I believe middle school students will enjoy playing with it as well. They also have a “mystery” program where you need to use knowledge about light to help the hero find her way out of the hall of mirrors. I have noticed in the past that the BBC is linked in closely with the UK national curriculum, which is very helpful even for me as an American teacher.

I want to try to get my students to think about using computers as work tools as much as possible, not just as glorified entertainment devices. It is critical that they make this connection so that they will not be left behind their age mates when the time comes to compete for jobs.

List of websites of interest to this topic:

http://www.brainpop.com/science/energy/electromagneticspectrum/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks2bitesize/science/physical_processes/light/play.shtml

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/scienceclips/ages/10_11/see_things.shtml

http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/teachers/lessons/roygbiv/roygbiv.html

http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/science/know_l1/emspectrum.html

http://spaceplace.nasa.gov/cosmic-colors/redirected/#/review/cosmic-colors/preloader.swf?path=/review/cosmic-colors/cosmic_colors

A note: I apologize to my classmates for being late with this, my district moved our deadline for report cards ahead by one week and unfortunately my blog got caught in the landslide. I hope this didn't inconvenience anyone too much!--Eileen