GENERAL PROPERTIES OF WAVES

GCE ‘O’ LEVEL PHYSICS 5052

LESSON PLAN A:
INTRODUCTION TO WAVES

Done by: Chew Yiming Clement (LG02)

Supervisor: Mr Charles Chew
Module Code: QCP521
 INTRODUCTION

The topic on General Wave Properties for 5052 Physics O Level is an important topic that
sets the foundation for further study in topics on EM waves, Light and Sound. The topic will
be taught in two lessons.

Lesson A: Introduction to Waves

Lesson B: The Wave Equation and its Applications

The lesson plan that follows is for Lesson A.

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 LESSON PLANNING (LESSON A)
Topic: General Wave properties

Class: Secondary 3 Express (Average ability)

Content:
(a) Describing wave motion

(b) Wave terms

(c) Longitudinal and transverse waves

Time: 2 periods (70 min)

Prerequisites and Prior Knowledge:

(a) Students should have learnt light and sound in Lower Secondary Science

(b) Students should have learnt the concept of speed and its definition.

(c) Students should have experience with water waves and have witnessed ocean waves.

Lesson objectives:

At the end of the lesson, students should be able to:

(a) Describe and explain what is meant by wave motion as illustrated by vibrations in
ropes, springs and by waves in a ripple tank. (Waves in a ripple tank to be dealt in
next lesson)

(b) Show understanding that waves transfer energy without transferring matter

(c) Define speed, frequency, wavelength, period and amplitude

(d) Compare transverse and longitudinal waves, and give suitable examples of each

(In lesson B)

(e) State what is meant by the term wavefront

(f) Recall the relationship velocity = frequency × wavelength

(g) Apply the relationship between velocity, frequency and wavelength to new situations
or to solve related problems.

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Learning Environment:

Classroom with whiteboard, OHT, a computer and a projector

Learning Aids & Resources:

(a) 1 × clear plastic basin (with wide base)

(b) 1 × rope

(c) 5 × slinky coil

(d) 1 × skipping rope

(e) Flash animations.

(f) 1 × newspaper article from Straits Times 15 Oct 2005 – ‘S’pore not safe from

tsunami’

(g) 2 × movie clips

• 1 × movie clip showing 26 Dec 2004 tsunami
• 1 × movie clip showing Tacoma Bridge collapse

(h) 11 × construction sheets (10 red, 1 yellow) for the wave game

(i) 1 × music clip

(j) PowerPoint Slides

(k) 1 × worksheets

(l) 1 × notes

(m)1 × dipper

Lesson Presentation:

Trigger Activity:
(1) Take the clear basin and fill it with water. Place the basin onto the OHT. This is to
simulate a pond or a puddle of water. Now drop a coin gently into the basin and
observe how the circular ripples move outwards to the surface of the water. This is
similar to the effect caused by casting a pebble into a pond.

(2) Show applet of 26 Dec 2004 tsunami. This is to illustrate the destructive power of
waves. Follow-up with newspaper cutting from the Straits Times 15 Oct 2005 –
“‘S’pore not safe from tsunami’”.

Emphasise to the students that we encounter waves daily in our lives. There are also many
application for waves in communications and medical science (radio sets, satellite

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technology, GPS, handphones, X-ray, photography). Tell the students that if they want to
pursue these interests later in life, they must pay attention to the lesson, and learn more about
waves! 

Set Induction:
The Wave Game
Ask ten students to come to the front of the class. Make them stand in a straight line facing
the class. Give them each a red construction paper. Tell them to do a continuous human
wave. Synchronise the wave with some music. Using this activity, provide sufficient
scaffolding to induce them to the properties of a transverse wave. For more details, refer to
Procedure for Lesson Plan

Strategies for Lesson Development:

(a) Simple to complex. Concrete to abstract.

One should not start off by introducing complex concepts before simpler concepts.
The students will be confused. The lesson plan takes an inductive approach leading
from specific to general examples, concrete to abstract concepts. Example: we begin
by talking about waves in daily life before proceeding to classifying the waves into
two different categories.

(b) Everyday Applications

The continuous emphasis of the use of waves in everyday applications will make
students more interested as they can relate them to their lives. Physics is useful and
not just some theoretical exercise!

(c) Perceptual Learning Styles

According to Dunn & Dunn (1978), students may have different perceptual learning
styles. Learners may be auditory, visual or tactual/kinesthetic. Activities such as the
wave game appeals to both kinesthetic and visual learners. Students will also get to
play with the slinky coils. Those who learn better by writing down what they see and
think have notes with blanks provided for them. They can fill in the blanks during the
course of the lesson.

(d) Focusing on the Essentials

No one can learn everything that is present in any textbook or lesson. Hence, it is
important for the teacher to communicate what is most essential to the students. Notes
with blanks are given out to fulfil the purposes. They contain the important definitions
and concepts a student has to master from the lesson. The lesson closure also offers a
recap using a concept map.

(e) Collaborative Learning

To integrate collaborative learning, students will be asked to take part in a Think-
Share-Pair activity where they are required to brainstorm and list the application of
waves in daily life.

Lesson Closure:
The teacher will recap what the students have learnt using a concept map. The teacher will
proceed to ask them some thinking questions that will prepare them for Lesson B on The

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Wave Equation and its Applications. Worksheets will also be given for students to do at
home to facilitate their consolidation of concepts, as well as serve as student assessment.

Possible Learning Difficulties and Misconceptions:

Most students find the topic of waves very abstract. Hence, there is a need for demonstrations
so that students can visualise the concepts involved. Some misconceptions of waves include:

• Waves transport matter.

• There must be a medium for a wave to travel through.

• Waves do not have energy.

• All waves travel the same way.

• Big waves travel faster than small waves in the same medium.

Concept Map:

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Reflection of lesson:
• The pace of the lesson was good. However, I can improve in the management of my
time during activities

• The music clip hanged during the wave game. There is a need to prepare a
contingency plan for teaching if technology fails.

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Procedure of Lesson Plan

Time Activities Resources Rationale

Frame
7 min Trigger Activities To provoke students
Activity 1: Throwing a pebble into a pond Clear basin and prepare their
(5min) filled with mindset to explore
• Ask students if they had ever throne a water. more into the topic of
stone into a pond or a puddle of water. waves.
What happens when the stone hits the Dipper
water? To show that waves
• Take a clear basin and fill it with occur in everyday life.
water.
• Place the basin onto the OHT. This is
to simulate a pond
• Using a dipper, create some circular
ripples in the basin of water.
• The teacher says, “This is what will
happen when I throw a pebble into a
pond. Do you see those circular
ripples? Those are waves”

Remark: Distribute the notes before the

trigger activity

Activity 2: Movie Clips Movie Clips

(5min)
• Tell students that waves are not Newspaper
always so harmless. They can be very Article
destructive.
• Show students movie clip of 26 Dec
2004 tsunami.
• Follow this up by showing newspaper
clip from Straits Times 15 Oct 2005 –
‘S’pore not safe from tsunami’
• Show movie clip of Tacoma Bridge
collapse.

Tell the students that waves occur in

everyday life. Hence, it is important for us
to study waves. There are also many
applications for waves in the fields of
medical science and communications. If
they want to pursue their interests in these
areas, they must know more about waves.
Hence, they must pay attention in class.

7 min Think-Pair-Share Handout A To get students to

think critically and

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 Time Activities Resources Rationale
Frame
• Distribute handout A. PowerPoint construct their own
• Ask them to work in pairs to fill in the slides understanding
1st column the applications of waves in regarding the
everyday life. definition of a wave.
• After they have finished, write some
of the students’ answers on the
whiteboard.
• Ask them the reason for choosing
some of the answers

Note: Some of the students’ answers

might be wrong. It is fine at this time
because the motive is to get them to think
critically about what is a wave. They can
learn from their mistakes

5 min Definition of a wave Clear basin Introduce definition of

• Take the clear basin of water and filled with wave using previous
placed it over the OHP. Create some water demonstrations and
ripples using the dipper again. activities as
• Bring to students’ attention the Dipper scaffolding
disturbance resulting from the
vibrations caused by the ball falling PowerPoint
into the water. Slides
• Show PowerPoint Slide explaining
definition of waves.
• Now that the students know the
definition of waves, ask the students to
evaluate their previous answers.
Which are waves and which are not?
• Emphasise that not all waves need a
medium to propagate. Example: EM
waves

8 min The Wave Game 10 red The intention of the

• Ask ten students to come to the front construction wave game is to help
of the class and make them stand in a paper students visualise the
straight line facing the class. mechanics involved in
• Give each student a red construction 2 cardboard a transverse wave.
paper arrows
• Ask the students to do a continuous Student-centered
human wave. If resources are Optional: learning
sufficient, the human wave can be Music clip
synchronised by a music clip.
• Using a cardboard arrow, prompt the
students to indicate the direction of
propagation of the wave.

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 Time Activities Resources Rationale
Frame
• Using the other cardboard arrow,
prompt the students to indicate the
direction each student is moving.
• Teacher to ask student what they
observe about the direction of the two
arrows. (They are perpendicular to
each other)
5 min Defining Transverse Waves Skipping Using activities to
• Ask a student to hold one end of the Rope help student construct
skipping rope while the teacher holds their understanding of
the other end. Flash what is a transverse
• The teacher moves his hand up and Animation wave.
down to generate transverse waves.
• Show the flash animation from PowerPoint
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebite Slides
size/flash/ph06008.swf. The flash
animation shows an electronic
representation of the rope wave.
• Ask the students what are the
similarities between the rope wave and
the human wave in the wave game.
• Show PowerPoint slide explaining
what a transverse wave is.
• Help students to remember for
transverse waves, waves travel in a
direction perpendicular to the
direction of vibration using the symbol
of a cross for the letter “t”.
• Give some examples of transverse Help students
waves. Example: EM waves consolidate their
• Ask review question to test understanding of
understanding of waves. transverse waves.
8 min Slinky Coil Demonstration Slinky Coil Using activities to
• Take a slinky coil and create help student construct
longitudinal waves. Flash their understanding of
• Pass the slinky coils for the student to animation what is a longitudinal
play along wave.
• Show flash animation on longitudinal 2 Cardboard
waves. arrows
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebite
size/flash/ph06009.swf PowerPoint
• Again using the two cardboard arrows, Slides
ask students to show the direction of
propagation of the waves, and the Optional
direction of the vibration. Ask them Movie Clip
how this is different from a transverse

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 Time Activities Resources Rationale
Frame
wave.
• Show PowerPoint slides explaining
the definition of a longitudinal wave.
• For longitudinal waves, the direction
of vibration is along the direction of
the propagation of the waves.
• Ask the students to observe that there
are areas where the spring appears
more compressed than other areas.
Introduce concept of compressions
and rarefactions.
• Give examples of longitudinal waves
in everyday life. Example: sound (if
there is time, show video clip of
candle flame flickering vigorously due
to sound blasting from a loud speaker)

5 min Review Questions PowerPoint Reinforce and assess

• Ask students some simple question to Slides students’
test whether they can compare and understanding of the
distinguish transverse and longitudinal concepts involved.
waves.

15 min Introducing crest, trough, amplitude and Construction Introducing wave

wavelength, frequency, period Paper terms to the students.
• Get another 10 students to play the
wave game. This time give one of the Music Clip Visual representation
students a yellow construction paper allows students to
instead of a red construction paper. PowerPoint understand abstract
Synchronise the wave using some Slides concepts better.
music.
• Ask the students to freeze in their Handout B
positions when you stop playing the
music. Optional:
• Stop the music when the student with Flash
the yellow construction paper is at his Animation
highest point. Introduce the idea of
crests to the students.
• Stop the music when the student with
the yellow construction paper is at his
lowest point. Introduce the idea of
troughs to the students.
• Using PowerPoint slides to introduce
definitions of crest, trough, amplitude,
wavelength, frequency and period to
the students.
• For relationship between frequency

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 Time Activities Resources Rationale
Frame
and period, ask the students to do Get students discover
handout 2 and observe the trend that implications of T=1/f
frequency increases as period via induction.
decrease. Ask why this occurs.

(If there is time, show flash animation on

wave terms. Students can vary wave
length, amplitude and frequency, and see
the effect on the wave)

5 min Review Questions on wave terms PowerPoint Reinforce students’

• Using PowerPoint, ask questions Slides understanding of wave
regarding the wave terms to reinforce terms
the students’ understanding of the
wave terms.

(If there is time, introduce the concept of

wave speed and a derivation of the wave
equation. But it is not critical as it will be
covered in the next lesson)

5 min Lesson Closure Notes Refresh the students’

• Summarise the concepts taught using memory concerning
the concept map. They are to fill up the concepts taught in
the blank spaces in their notes. the lesson.
• Pose the following questions to the
students to think through before the Help the students
next lesson focus on the
 Why don't incoming ocean waves essentials.
bring more water on to the shore
until the beach is completely Thinking questions to
submerged? set the students to
 In space films, we often hear the inquire more into the
sound of the engine of the subject
spaceship as the zoom past each
other in outer space. We even hear
the spaceship firing lasers at one
another. What are your thoughts
concerning this?
 How will the motion of water
waves change as they move from
deep to shallow water? How about
from shallow to deep water?

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References

1) Charles Chew, Leong See Cheng, Chow Siew Foong (2000). Physics A Course for
‘O’ Levels (2nd Edition), Federal, Singapore.
2) Rita Dunn, Kenneth Dunn (1978). Teaching Students Through Their Learning Styles
– a practical approach, Prentice-Hall, Virginia, USA.
3) Loo Wan Yong, Loo Kwok Wai, See Toh Weng Fong (2000). Physics Insights,
Pearson Education, Singapore.
4) Panagiotis Pantidos, Stamatis Patapis (2005). Kinesthetic Transverse Wave
Demostration, The Physics Teacher, Vol. 43, p.344-345
5) http://www.physicsclassroom.com/Class/waves/U10L1c.html
6) http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/physics/waves/an_introduction_to_wavesr
ev1.shtml
7) http://www.physicsclassroom.com/Class/waves/wavestoc.html
8) http://www.wfu.edu/physics/demolabs/demos/index.html
9) http://www.kettering.edu/~drussell/demos.html

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APPENDIX A

HANDOUT 1 FOR INTRODUCTION TO WAVES

Name: Class:

Examples and Applications of Type of Waves Any medium involved?

Waves in Everyday Life (Transverse/Longitudinal)

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APPENDIX C

HANDOUT B FOR INTRODUCTION TO WAVES

Name: Class:

Exploring the relationship between period, T and frequency, f

1
We have just learnt that period, T = f .
Let’s explore the implications of this relationship.

Frequency, f/Hz Period, T/s

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

What do you observe?

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APPENDIX C

HANDOUT B FOR INTRODUCTION TO WAVES (ANSWERS)

Name: Class:

Exploring the relationship between period, T and frequency, f

1
We have just learnt that period ,T = .
f
Let’s explore the implications of this relationship.

Frequency, f/Hz Period, T/s

1 1
2 0.5
3 0.333
4 0.25
5 0.2
6 0.167
7 0.143
8 0.125
9 0.111
10 0.1

What do you observe?

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APPENDIX E – NOTES WITH ANSWERS

UNIT 13 - GENERAL PROPERTIES OF WAVES

1. What is a wave?

 It is a spreading of disturbance from one place to another.

 The source of the wave is a vibration or an oscillation.

 Energy is transferred from one point to another without physical transfer of any

material between two points.

2. Do waves need a medium to propagate? No

3. Transverse waves travel in a direction perpendicular to the direction of the vibrations.

Some examples of transverse waves: water waves, rope waves, EM waves

4. Longitudinal waves travel in a direction parallel to the direction of the vibrations.

5. Crests: Points of maximum displacement on a wave.

Troughs: Points of minimum displacement on a wave.

displacement
CREST CREST

distance
along rope

TROUGH

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6. Amplitude (A): Maximum displacement from the rest or central position.

SI unit: metre (m)

displacement

crest crest

amplitude

distance along rope

amplitude

trough

7. Wavelength (λ ): Distance between two successive points of the same phase.

Example: distance between two crests.

SI unit: metre (m)

displacement

crest λ crest

amplitude

distance

amplitude

trough

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8. Frequency (f): Number of waves generated per second.

SI unit: hertz (Hz)

9. Period (T): Time taken to generate one complete wave (or to complete one cycle).

SI unit: seconds (s)

10. Relationship between period, T and frequency, f:

1
T =
f

As f increases, T decreases.

CONCEPT MAP:

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APPENDIX F – NEWSPAPER CLIP AND POWERPOINT SLIDES

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