Chemistry
Standard 2, objective I
Title: Formative Assessment Probes
Author: Janis Taylor, Bingham High School
Description: This assessment contains two formative assessment probes where students answer a question that is integral to their mastery of this objective. They will explain the answer and provide reasoning that can help the teacher understand their level of understanding.
Time Needed: 20 minutes
Materials: Assessment Probe (see below)
Procedures:
1. Provide each student with a copy of the probe and ask them to fill it out as completely as possible. No name is necessary on the paper.
2. Use a strategy designed to recombine the paper with a different student. Suggestions:
- Students may crumple their papers into a ball and throw them around the room (this is a favorite of students). They pick up a paper that is not their own.
- Students may pass the papers to the left, then forward, then left, right, left and so on.
- Students may turn them in and the teacher can redistribute them.
3. Students will share the answer on the paper they have. Techniques for this include:
- Reading them out loud and discussing the answers.
- Moving to a corner of the room marked A, B, C or D, depending on the answer on the paper. A few students in each corner read the answers on their paper.
- Using clickers or cards with letters on them to gather class data.
Explanation/Ideal Answer
The most correct choice is D: Purple, Green, Yellow, and Red. Light from colors toward the red end of the spectrum (with long wavelengths) have less energy and light from colors toward the purple end of the spectrum have more energy.
Suggestions for Instruction/Assessment
Students could also construct their own spectroscopes using cardboard boxes, diffraction gratings, and tape. They could mark where specific colors show up then look up and write the correlating wavelength and energy for each color. Or they could just use spectroscopes from a science supply company. Students could observe spectrums from several different elements with the spectroscopes either using vapor tubes or lighting nitrate compounds on fire.
Formative Assessment Probes for Standard II
Colors and Energy
Consider the wavelengths of light in meters and the corresponding energy values in Joules given on the continuum below.
5x10-19 4x10-19 Energy 3.3x10-19 2.8x10-19
4x10-7 5x10-7 Wavelength 6x10-7 7x10-7
The equation below was used to calculate the energy emitted for each different wavelength.
E (in Joules) = (Plank’s constant)(Speed of light)
Wavelength
Which of the following correctly lists colors of light in the order that they would correlate to the values for energy and wavelength listed in the continuum above?
A. Red, Purple, Green, Yellow
B. Yellow, Green, Purple, Red
C. Red, Yellow, Green, Purple
D. Purple, Green, Yellow, Red
Describe your thinking. What is the relationship between the energy in a photon of light and the color of light emitted?