Indiana Science HS-PSII-8.2
The Standard
Develop graphical, mathematical, and pictorial representations (e.g., ray diagrams) that describe the relationship between the angles of incidence and refraction of monochromatic light passed between two different media and apply those representations to qualitatively and quantitatively describe how changing the angle of incidence affects the angle of refraction.
Indiana Academic Standards for Science (2023) · Geometric Optics
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Draw light rays crossing from one material to another and measure angles from the normal, not the surface. Use refractive indices to calculate the refracted angle. Graph angle pairs and describe what changes as the incoming angle increases.
What Mastery Looks Like
- Given the refractive indices for air and glass, a student draws the ray bending the right way and calculates its angle. They use a graph to show that a larger incoming angle gives a larger refracted angle, but not a proportionally larger one.
Common Misconceptions
- Students often measure angles from the surface instead of the normal. Some think light always bends toward the normal, even when it travels from glass into air. Others assume the refracted angle equals the incoming angle.
How to Assess It
- Exit ticket: A ray enters glass (n = 1.50) from air (n = 1.00) at 30° to the normal. Draw the ray path, calculate the refracted angle, then predict how it changes if the incoming angle is 45°.
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Trace a ray box beam through an acrylic block on paper, then draw the normal and measure both angles with a protractor.
Ask pairs to sketch a beam entering glass from air and leaving glass for air, then explain which way each ray bends.
Give pairs cards marked 15°, 30°, and 60°; have them calculate refraction angles for light entering glass from air and check each other's work.
Show a straw in a glass of water; students sketch the light path from its submerged tip to an eye.
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Printable HS-PSII-8.2 Worksheet
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