1666 TEKS header image

Knowledge and Skills Statement

Science concepts. The student knows the characteristics and behavior of waves.
Glossary terms and definitions are consistent across kindergarten through high school in the TEKS Guide. The definitions are intended to give educators a common understanding of the terms regardless of what grade level they teach. Glossary definitions are not intended for use with students.

a converging lens having at least one surface that curves outward like the exterior of a sphere, causing light to refract towards a focal point

a flat mirror that reflects light and produces a virtual image without the complication caused by an inward or outward curve

a phenomenon that occurs when a wave is bounced off the boundary of a new medium and not absorbed

a phenomenon that occurs when a wave changes direction due to the change in speed when it enters a new medium at an angle; the wave still moves in a straight line, but the angle changes

a disturbance or variation that transfers energy progressively from point to point with or without a medium, without transferring matter

Research

John, M., J. M. Molepo, and M. Chirwa."Learners’ Conceptual Understanding About Image Formation By a Convex Lens: How and to What Extent Can It Be Improved?" International Journal for Cross-disciplinary Subjects in Education 9, no. 2 (2018): 3384–3392. https://doi.org/10.20533/ijcdse.2042.6364.2018.0453

Summary:  The research conducted for this paper evaluates the effectiveness of an interactive optics teaching module, designed to enhance conceptual understanding by adopting a quasi-experimental pre-test-post-test design. The findings suggest that the practical experiment, supported by carefully-designed worksheets, worked significantly better than the computer simulation in improving learners' conceptual understanding of image formation by lenses.