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Wave Signals at the Community Bike Shop

Use spring-wave models and bike-shop test data to compare wave height, spacing, and an object's motion.

Grade 4ScienceInteractive · Printable

Aligned to4-PS4-1

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What’s included

Single worksheet
Auto-graded online
1 NGSS standard
Printable answer key
15 questions
Classroom-ready

Details

Format: Interactive · Printable
Grade: Grade 4
Subject: Science
Question types: Fill in the blank, Multiple choice, Circle the answer, Sorting, Short answer

About this worksheet

What students practice

Students model waves by comparing their height and spacing.
Students use test data to connect wave patterns with an object's motion.
Students explain a cause-and-effect chain from a changed wave pattern to object movement.

How to use

Read the repair-counter investigation together, then have students study the models and graph before answering. Discuss which claims use evidence from the tests.

Curriculum

NGSS standard covered

4-PS4-1

Model waves to describe patterns in their height and spacing and that waves can make objects move.

Preview

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Wave Signals at the Community Bike Shop

Use models and test data to explain how wave patterns can move an object.

Read the wave models

A community bike shop team used a stretched spring to model repeating waves. Use the description and models to answer the questions.

The Repair-Counter Investigation

At a community bike shop, Noor and Mateo wanted to make a small safety flag move without touching it. They stretched a spring across a repair counter and attached a lightweight paper tag near one end. They sent repeating waves through the spring by moving one end up and down. The tag moved up and down when the waves reached it. The team measured the tag's total up-and-down movement, from its lowest position to its highest position.

The team used the same spring, paper tag, counter, and measuring method in every test. Between tests, they let the spring return to its resting line. They changed the wave pattern in planned ways. In one pattern, the crests were farther apart. In another, the crests were closer together. They also made some crests rise farther above the resting line.

For these models, wave height means the distance from the resting line to a crest. Crest spacing means the distance from one crest to the next crest along the spring. The points on the models show the spring's height at different positions. The line y = 4 is the resting line for Models A, B, and C. The team used the models to plan tests, then recorded how far the tag moved.

Model A has a resting line of 4 units. Its crests are at (1, 6), (5, 6), and (9, 6). Its low points are at (3, 2) and (7, 2).