Teacher Resources
The Physics Classroom has been devoted to helping students, teachers, and classrooms since the 1990s. We are as passionate about that mission now as we have ever been. If you are a teacher of Physics or Physical Science, we encourage you to use our Video Tutorial with your students. And we also encourage you to consider the use of other resources on our website that coordinate with the video. We have listed a few below to help you get started.
Curriculum Corner, Refraction and Lenses
Our Curriculum Corner section of the website includes a large collection of Think Sheets that make great complements to the video. Each Think Sheet focuses on a single concept and is structured to incrementally guide a student through the concept. They make for great follow-ups to the video, good cooperative group activities, and inclusions in any lesson plan. The following Think Sheet combines the drawing of a ray diagram with the identification of the characteristics of the resulting image. The L•O•S•T model is the basis of the image descriptions:
Ray Diagrams for Converging Lenses
And if you need source documents (Microsoft Words), extended licensing rights, and solutions, consider the purchase of our low-cost
Solutions Guide download.
Physics Interactive, Refraction and Lenses Chapter, Optics Bench Simulation
Sometimes students learn best by playing ... with Physics, that is. And our simulations allow them to do just that. Our Optics Bench simulation allows a student to move an object to varying locations in front of a lens (converging or diverging), view the light rays, and observe the image location and characteristics. There is
a ready-to-use student activity sheet that you can download in a PDF format and distribute to students. Assign the activity sheet to your class and then follow it up with
a Concept Checker on the same topic.
Concept Builders, Reflection and Refraction Chapter, L•O•S•T Art of Image Description
Like many of our Concept Builders, this one and the video fit like hand and glove. Assign the video, process it in class, and use the Concept Builder as a check for understanding.
Minds On Physics, Refraction and Lenses Module, Mission RL9
Student persistence with Minds On Physics combined with reflective thinking and the use of our Help function will put any student at the top of the class. This mission focuses on image characteristics of images formed by converging lenses and is a good follow up to this video.
The Physics Classroom Tutorial, Refraction and the Ray Model of Light, Lesson 5, Object-Image Relations
Our written tutorial pages form the basis of most videos. So when you need a quick reference, the Tutorial page is a great place to start. This page is a great written version of the video.