educator materials

Learning Objectives

Students will:

·        Be able to describe the different uses of radios and radio waves in communication, including for military and transportation communication, weather tracking, and global positioning systems (GPS)

·        Use publicly available satellite data to interpret weather events and their impact

·        Operate a basic GPS device and understand where/how that data originates

·        Design their own geocache and direct other students to its location using GPS coordinates

 NYS Science Learning Standards

·        1-PS4-4. Use tools and materials to design and build a device that uses light or sound to solve the problem of communicating over a distance.

o  Clarification Statement: Examples of devices could include a light source to send signals, paper cup and string “telephones,” and a pattern of drum beats.

o  Assessment Boundary: Assessment does not include technological details for how communication devices work.

·        4-PS3-2. Make observations to provide evidence that energy is conserved as it is transferred and/or converted from one form to another one form to another. [Clarification Statement: Examples of forms of energy could include sound, light, heat, and electrical.] [Assessment Boundary: Assessment does not include quantitative measurements of energy.

·        MS-PS4-3: Integrate qualitative scientific and technical information to support the claim that digitized signals are a more reliable way to encode and transmit information than analog signals.

o  Clarification Statement: Emphasis is on a basic understanding that waves can be used for communication purposes. Examples could include using fiber optic cable to

o  transmit light pulses, radio wave pulses in Wi-Fi devices, and conversion of stored binary patterns to make sound or text on a computer screen.