The Science of Making Waves

The students struggled with the idea of an abstract picture of a wave but once they got into it they loved using the chalk pastels. I encouraged them to create two totally different ideas since we will be using these tomorrow for our inspiration for a bigger drawing of waves. We enjoyed some extra inspiration from watching some fun surfing of the waves on youtube.











Today we conducted a science experiment to show that wind moving on the top of water produces waves. First we made predictions of what would happen when we fanned the water. Some students said "ripples will occur" others said a "big wave". Some said that the water would move from one side of the container to the other. I chose some students to fan the water with a piece of cardboard. Some students caused ripples and others created waves by fanning very fast! We then turned on a fan and noticed a more regular rhythm of waves and ripples in the water.

We used Chalk Pastels on Pastel Paper cut into small pieces. The students created two examples of their own ideas of waves in an abstract way.