Introduction
Welcome Scientists!
You were working in your lab one day when a mysterious sound came from a radio inside the lab. The sound was jumbled and hard to hear. Even though you don't understand what the sound is saying, it sounds like it is repeating.
You decide to put the radio in your wave analysis machine. The machine lays out a picture of the mysterious sound wave in black, while showing you the signal the radio is receiving in red. You know that in order to decode the message you must learn as much as you can about waves. Your goal is to make the waves match so you can hear what this mysterious message means!
Task
Task 1:
Before you begin learning about waves and solving this mystery. Please take this small pre-lesson survey to gauge how much you know about waves.
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScmIldLRGP_9ibRrYP2akM8KnFIbqDNu-nQXkiGte9D3SNvig/viewform
Task 2:
After you are done taking the pre-lesson survey, please watch this video that will teach you basic terms and concepts involving waves:
Task 3:
After you are done watching the video, answer the following question on a separate sheet of paper in 3-4 sentences.
Knowing what you know about waves, what types of waves on water would be the most dangerous for a boat to be on? Use scientific terms such crest, amplitude, frequency to support your answer.
Task 4:
After you are done answering the question, please play this interactive game called the Wave Combinator which will teach you more about how you can manipulate the shapes of waves which will help you solve the mystery of the mysterious radio signal.
Evaluation
Time to solve the mystery!
Now that you have learned more about waves, its time to now see if you can solve the mystery. In 3-4 sentences on a separate piece of paper, discuss what you would do to make it so the red wave matches with the black wave. Use scientific terms such as crest, trough, amplitude, wave length, and frequency to support your answer. At the end of class, we will see if you were able to solve the mystery!
Conclusion
The answer was in front of you the whole time. The amplitude of the wave was the same for both the black and red waves, but the wavelength needed to be increased in order to lower the frequency of the wave. After turning the dials on your machine to make the wave lengths match, suddenly the message on the radio comes in crystal clear.
"Hello, this is a message from the Utopians. We believe in the power of communication and science to bring peace. If you can hear our message and want to talk with us, please contact us at this frequency."
Who are these mysterious Utopians? What wonders of the universe can they show us? Only time can tell in the next webquest!