Unit 07 · Waves, Sound & Light
A wave is a pattern that carries energy without carrying the stuff it moves through. This unit measures waves you can make in a stretched spring — their wavelength, their frequency, their amplitude — then connects those ideas to the sound you hear and the light you see. You’ll meet the electromagnetic spectrum, from radio waves to visible light, and watch a wave bounce back as reflection. Mastery means you can describe a wave by its measurements and explain how sound and light behave as waves.
| Criterion | Not yet | Approaching | Mastered |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wave parts: wavelength, frequency & amplitude | Cannot label the parts of a wave. | Names the parts but measures them wrong. | Measures wavelength, frequency, and amplitude and says what each one controls. |
| Waves carry energy | Thinks a wave carries matter along with it. | Says waves carry energy but cannot show it. | Explains that a wave moves energy through a medium while the medium itself stays in place. |
| Sound & light as waves | Treats sound and light as unrelated. | Calls both waves but cannot compare them. | Describes sound and light as waves and links pitch to frequency and loudness or brightness to amplitude. |
| The electromagnetic spectrum & reflection | Cannot place visible light among the other waves. | Names parts of the spectrum but not their order. | Orders the electromagnetic spectrum simply and predicts how a wave reflects off a surface. |
| Lab technique (waves in a spring) | Cannot make a steady wave in the spring. | Makes waves but cannot measure them consistently. | Produces steady waves in a spring, measures wavelength and frequency, and shows how they change together. |
| Integration (cross-domain) | Treats the science as isolated facts; makes no cross-domain connection. | Names a link to history, reading, or writing but cannot defend why it matters. | Connects the unit to its anchor across History · Reading · Writing (plus chosen electives) and defends why the connection matters. |
“When I shook the spring faster, the waves got closer together — higher frequency, shorter wavelength — but the spring itself just moved up and down in place; only the wave traveled along it. That’s the same reason a higher-pitched sound is a higher-frequency wave.”
“The wave carried the spring down to the other end. Higher pitch means louder, right? I mixed up frequency and amplitude.”
You demonstrate this unit through hands-on wave setups — waves in a stretched spring, plus sound and light demos — measuring wavelength and frequency and explaining the behavior aloud, not a multiple-choice test. A criterion counts as mastered only when you can both make and measure the wave and explain what its numbers mean. Mastery is demonstrated, not awarded.
A 5-page clipboard packet — unit overview, key terms, the mastery rubric, anchor examples, and a score sheet you can print and grade against.