How Light Behaves

emilio balzano

università degli studi di napoli federico II

ERASMUS INTENSIVE PROGRAMME LIGHT

Ioannina june 8 2011

science-education @ unina

• Science in the social and cultural framework• Scientism vs. Science as a human

enterprise• Science as a process• Role of models and theories• Predictivity and uncertainty• Science-mathematics-technology

relationships• Gender

Taking Science to School"what" to teach and "when". The systematic under-estimation of students' cognitive

potentialities is stressed by the authors who maintain that science has to be presented to learners as a process of building theories and models. They also think that it is necessary to identify a few "core ideas" of the discipline and design how

they can be progressively developed, over grades K-8 levels, using strategies based on models of learning

the components of the proficiency in science to be promoted are identified (to know, to use and to interpret scientific explanations of the natural world; to generate and evaluate scientific evidence and explanations; to understand the nature and development of scientific knowledge; to participate productively in scientific practices and discourse).

"how" to teach. Learners have to be involved in activities about the above mentioned components of proficiency; adults have to support and guide them.

Teachers have to be educated to transform their knowledge about disciplines, about students' learning processes, about different teaching styles and strategies into professional competencies.

Emblematic experiences onMirrors (Plane mirror, Right angled mirrors,

Kaleidoscope, “Mirage”) (GROUPS 3&4)

Light deviation (Lens, Water lens, Refraction Converging and Diverging lens) (GROUP 6)

Color and color combinations (GROUPS 1&7)

Shadows (from affine to perspective geometry) (GROUPS 2&5)

The activityThe work is about the relationship between

optics and geometry.

Students are required to write a schematic proposal (draft) based on lab-work activities. The goal is based on the opportunity to share key ideas among groups.

The draft can be later developed to prepare some more organic proposal.

Design of the activity

•Rationale and core concepts

•Description of the activities in the frame of a more general path

•Target group

•Materials

•Setting of the class

•Space and time

•References

Activities should be linked to the curriculum, so that both pupils and teachers can see the relevance of the educational path to broader issues that are being taught.

“Man Drawing a Lute”, by Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528). This drawing shows a simple but impractical way to correctly do a perfect drawing. The object to draw is the lute. The camera position is the nail on the wall. The paper (shown as a door) is the plane the projection is to be onto.

Spatial thinking

Composing and decomposing shapes and objects are part of a foundation for later reasoning about fractions and about area and volume

AFFINE GEOMETRY

parallel lines remain parallel

concurrent lines remain concurrent (images of intersecting lines intersect)

the ratio of length of line segments of a given line remains constant

the ratio of areas of two triangles remains constant (and hence the ratio of any areas remain constant)

ellipses remain ellipses and the same is true for parabolas and hyperbolas

barycenters of triangles (and other shapes) map into the corresponding barycenters

two triangles are perspective (or homologic) if, when the sides of each triangle are extended, they meet at three collinear points. The line which goes through the three points is known as the perspectrix, perspective axis, homology axis, or axis of perspectivity. The triangles are said to be perspective from the line. The point at which the lines joining the vertices of the perspective triangle intersect is called the perspector, perspective center, homology center, pole, or center of perspectivity.

Kaleidoscope

Make multiple images of yourself.

Duck Into Kaleidoscope will create hundreds of images of - whatever you place inside it. The basic kaleidoscope is a triangle, but mirror tiles can beformed into other shapes and angles as well.

http://www.exploratorium.edu/snacks/duck_into_kaleidoscope/index.html

www.les.unina.it

Parents activity 29° Circolo “Scuola Nuova”