What Does Light See?
Prisms use refraction to separate the colors of light.Copyright 2009 Marcellus Wallace, Wikimedia Commons http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Prism_by_Godzilla.png
Students are introduced to the concept of refraction. After making sure they understand the concepts of diffraction and interference, students work collaboratively to explain optical phenomena that cannot be accounted for via these two mechanisms alone. Then, through the associated activity, students see first-hand how refraction can work with interference to produce color patterns, similar to how nanosensors work. Finally, students apply their knowledge of refraction to the original challenge question to generate a possible solution in the form of a biosensor.
Every product or system that engineers develop is derived from fundamental facts about the nature of the universe, and the logically channeling of those facts to perform useful tasks. Through this lesson and its associated activity, students are guided to discover refraction, a fundamental aspect of the nature of light, and asked to think like engineers to apply that knowledge to the possibility of a biosensor that can test for specific genes.
After this lesson, students should be able to:
- Define refraction in a single sentence.
- List three factors that one could change in a refractive situation to alter the visible colors, and describe in one sentence each how each factor would alter the result.