Sunday, 9 June 2013

Optics Unit - In Class Experience

Our third unit in this course was Light and Optics. In this unit, I got to learn about how light and lasers work, the reflection and refraction of light and how light acts in different types of mirrors and lenses. Additionally, I got to perform experiments on finding where images are located using converging and diverging lenses.

In this unit, I found studying how light behaves when it interacts with mirrors and lenses the most interesting. I think I found this interesting because I had no idea how mirrors and lenses worked before we started this unit, and learning about how we really see all of these images was quite interesting. I also never knew that it was possible for a mirror or lens to diverge light rays resulting in a virtual image. I always thought that we saw things in mirrors because they had a shiny surface and our image just appeared in them. I also had no idea how convex and concave mirrors altered our appearance, and had wondered about that before this unit. I also like being able to draw myself a simple diagram to find out where images are. Since I can figure out where images really are located in lenses and mirrors, I like to draw myself diagrams and see where images will be located and then compare my diagram to what I see through the lens or mirror.

The part about this unit that I found the least interesting was learning about the reflection of light in plane mirrors. I know I said that I really liked knowing how the light works, but the topic was just a tad bit boring to learn about. The only thing I really learned in that lesson was that light bounces back at the same angle it strikes an object if the object is flat. I really like having that knowledge and it fills some gaps that I had on the understanding of mirrors, but that lesson was just boring. There isn’t anything we can do about it though, reflection in plane mirrors will always continue to follow “angle of incidence = angle of reflection”.

Something I would love to learn more is how we actually see objects. This topic was very briefly covered in the first PowerPoint, but never expanded upon. The only thing we learned about how we actually see objects is that light is absorbed by certain objects and light is reflected off of certain objects, and you see the reflected light. The only thing this helped me explain was the reason why wearing a black shirt on a hot day is a bad idea. I would have liked to learn more about how different colours of light are absorbed and reflected on objects. I would have also liked to learn about why different objects look like they are different colours. Some items are red, and others are blue, but why? We know that the red objects reflect red light and the blue objects reflect blue light, but why do they reflect those colours of light? Why don’t red objects reflect both red and orange light? It probably has something to do with the material but I would have really liked to learn more about this.

I actually do not think that other students are on the same page as me when it comes to this unit. I have heard many students complaining that optics is the worst unit in the Grade 10 Science curriculum. Although I heavily disagree, everyone is entitled to their own opinion. In my honest opinion, I believe that the grade 10 optics curriculum should be left as is, although other students would disagree. I think most students did not like the fact that the optics unit went over so much information so fast. I don’t think this is a problem with the curriculum itself but a problem in the way that it was taught to us. Perhaps other students didn’t like the fact that we learned refraction, how to calculate the index of refraction and Snell’s law on the same day? Maybe others didn’t like that we learned both the thin lens and magnification equations on the same day? However, I do have one recommendation. Snell’s law was not really taught to us in class, and it was put aside as a do it yourself assignment. I really think that this topic should be addressed in class, especially for those students who struggle with math.

Overall, I really liked the Optics Unit, and I am excited to see what Physics has in store next year. This unit provided the perfect balance between memorization and thinking, as well as taught me so many things about how light behaves when it strikes objects that I never knew before. 

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