Strategies for teaching waves in the next generation science standards

Abstract

Waves and their applications are one of the disciplinary core ideas in the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), but the performance expectations include concepts that have not historically been an important part of teaching waves in high school science classrooms, with a particular focus on technologies that utilize waves and on students making connections between different types of waves including sound, seismic waves, and electromagnetic waves. In this talk, I will share resources and strategies that I use to teach some of these concepts, including both hands-on activities and digital resources. Many of these resources are also appropriate to other physics courses, including AP Physics and introductory college physics courses.