Notes and ideas for LIGO in school
Waves in physics: distance, time for wavespeed
HW: real world examples (e.g. wavespeed)
How to do a research study
- Could work well for science intro class (e.g. Gr 9)
Interferometer:
- changes in fringes due to dropping weights
- general understanding of how it is made and works
- engineering practices
- makes a good demo (6 kits are a bit expensive)
- follow with LIGO lesson/data
- How do you measure that? Students each pick an important experiment: interferometer is in several.
- IB: use diffraction to find wavelength of light - optics option
Posters - good intro to making a poster, easy to use. Useful after IB exam.
IB options:
- imaging
- optics
IB internal assessment - has all the elements including poster creation
Interferometer with LIGO
Images from ppt
Use Data Portfolio activities, e.g penny activity
Student interest: more LIGO instrument, gravitational waves, GTR, etc than seismic data (but all are important)
Great for end-of-semester work