HS-PS4-5: How Devices Use Waves to Transmit and Capture Information and Energy
In plain English: HS-PS4-5 is the NGSS high school performance expectation that asks students to communicate technical information about how devices use wave behavior and wave interactions with matter to transmit and capture information and energy. Examples include solar cells, medical imaging and communications technology. It is usually taught in Physics or Physical Science.
Communicate technical information about how some technological devices use the principles of wave behavior and wave interactions with matter to transmit and capture information and energy.
Clarification Statement: Examples could include solar cells capturing light and converting it to electricity; medical imaging; and communications technology.
Assessment Boundary: Assesments are limited to qualitative information. Assessments do not include band theory.
Next Generation Science Standards · Disciplinary Core Idea: Waves and Their Applications in Technologies for Information Transfer · Official standard
Students explain how real devices put waves to work. For each device they identify the wave (light, radio waves, X-rays, sound), the wave behavior or interaction with matter it depends on (reflection, refraction, total internal reflection, absorption, transmission, interference), and whether the device transmits or captures information, energy or both. Then they communicate that explanation to a specific audience in words, labeled diagrams and short technical writing, and critique explanations written by others.
The NGSS Clarification Statement says: "Examples could include solar cells capturing light and converting it to electricity; medical imaging; and communications technology." The Assessment Boundary says: "Assesments are limited to qualitative information. Assessments do not include band theory." (the typo "Assesments" is in the official text). So solar cells are explained as absorbing light and giving electrons enough energy to move as a current, without energy bands, and every quiz and homework task asks for qualitative explanations. The few numbers in the teaching examples are context, not skills to assess. All data sets are invented for teaching.
Learning Objectives
By the end of this lesson, students will be able to:
Identify the wave behavior or interaction with matter (reflection, refraction, total internal reflection, absorption, transmission, interference) that a device depends on
Classify what a device does as transmitting or capturing, and as moving information, energy or both
Explain qualitatively how a solar cell captures energy from light, how medical imaging devices capture information, and how communication devices transmit and capture signals
Communicate technical information about a device clearly and accurately for a named audience, using a labeled diagram and short writing
Critique a technical explanation for scientific accuracy and clarity, and revise it
Prior Knowledge Required
Students should already be comfortable with:
Waves reflected, absorbed or transmitted by different materials MS-PS4-2
Digitized signals sent as wave pulses MS-PS4-3
Frequency, wavelength and wave speed, and the bands of the electromagnetic spectrum HS-PS4-1
Energy transfer and conversion between forms, such as light to electrical energy
Hold up a smartphone and ask students to think about everything it does with waves in a normal day.
Warm-Up Prompt
"List as many jobs as you can that your phone does with waves (light, sound, radio). Sort your list into two columns: jobs where the phone sends something out and jobs where it takes something in. Which jobs move information, and which move energy?"
Build a class two-by-two table on the board with the headings transmit or capture, and information or energy. Leave it up: every device in the lesson gets placed in it.
Direct Instruction15-20 minutes
The toolkit. Devices rely on a short list of wave behaviors. Waves reflect from surfaces, refract (bend) when they change speed entering a new material, are absorbed or transmitted depending on the material and the frequency, and interfere when two waves overlap. Total internal reflection happens when light inside a material such as glass hits the boundary at a large enough angle: all of it reflects back in (Diagram 1). A device transmits when it sends waves out and captures when it absorbs waves and turns them into a signal or into useful energy. Information travels as a pattern in the wave, such as pulses switched on and off.
How to communicate it. A good technical explanation names the wave, the interaction, and what is transmitted or captured, in that order, and matches its words to the audience. Model the five examples below as short explanations, then point out the structure.
Solar cells: capturing energy (for a homeowner)
A homeowner asks: "How does the panel on my roof turn sunlight into electricity?"
Result: Sunlight is absorbed in thin layers of silicon. Absorbed light gives some electrons enough energy to move, and the layers of the cell push those electrons one way, so they flow as an electric current. A typical panel turns about one-fifth of the light's energy into electrical energy; the rest warms the panel or is reflected. The panel captures energy (Diagram 2 shows how its output depends on the angle of the light).
Medical imaging: X-ray radiography (for a patient)
A patient asks: "Why do my bones show up white on a chest X-ray?"
Result: The machine transmits X-rays through your body toward a detector. Bone absorbs more X-rays than muscle, and the air-filled lungs absorb very little, so fewer X-rays reach the detector behind bone. The detector captures the pattern of X-rays that got through, and areas that received few X-rays are shown white. The device captures information.
Communications: fiber optic internet (for a city council)
A city council member asks: "What actually travels through the fiber cables the city wants to install?"
Result: A laser at one end switches on and off billions of times per second; each flash or gap is one bit. The light travels through a hair-thin glass fiber at about two-thirds of its speed in air, and total internal reflection at the edge of the glass keeps it inside, even around gentle bends. A detector at the far end captures the pulses and turns them back into data. The cable transmits information.
Medical imaging: ultrasound (for an expectant parent)
A parent asks: "How does the ultrasound probe make a picture without X-rays?"
Result: The probe sends short pulses of very high-pitched sound, far above what people can hear, into the body. At each boundary between tissues, part of the sound reflects back. The probe captures the echoes: an echo that returns later came from deeper inside, and the strength of each echo shows what kind of boundary it came from. A computer turns thousands of echoes into an image. The device transmits sound and captures information.
Communications: a phone call (for sixth graders)
A sixth grader asks: "How does my voice get to my friend's phone?"
Result: Your phone's microphone turns your voice into an electrical signal, and the phone turns that signal into a digital code. The phone's antenna transmits radio waves that carry the code as a pattern. An antenna on a cell tower captures the waves, the network passes the code along, and your friend's phone captures radio waves from a nearby tower and turns the code back into sound. Phones use radio wavelengths of roughly 12 to 43 cm, so the antennas fit inside the case.
After the examples, ask students to place each device in the board table. Point out that X-ray imaging and ultrasound both transmit waves in order to capture information, and that the phone both transmits and captures.
Guided Practice15-20 minutes
Pairs rewrite an invented technical paragraph for a school newsletter. Read it aloud first:
"The remote weather station is powered by a photovoltaic module that converts incident irradiance into DC power for the sensors. Sensor readings are sent by RF telemetry at 915 MHz to a receiver on the school roof, which requires line of sight between the two antennas."
Guided practice: translating the technical terms (teacher key)
Technical term
Plain meaning
Wave idea
Transmit or capture?
Photovoltaic module
Solar panel
Light is absorbed and its energy becomes electrical energy
Captures energy
Incident irradiance
The sunlight falling on the panel
More light striking the panel squarely means more energy absorbed
Captures energy
RF telemetry at 915 MHz
Readings sent as radio waves
Radio waves carry the data as a pattern
Transmits information
Line of sight
A clear, straight path between the antennas
Hills and buildings can absorb or reflect the signal
Transmits and captures information
Replace each technical term with its plain meaning, keeping the science accurate.
Add one sentence that says which parts of the station capture energy and which transmit information.
Trade with another pair and check each other's version against the table: is anything now wrong or missing?
Independent Practice10-15 minutes
Each student writes a "How it works" card (100-150 words plus a labeled sketch) for a wireless baby monitor, written for new parents. The camera unit captures light from the room, including infrared from small lights on the camera at night, and transmits the video to the parent unit by radio waves; the parent unit captures the radio waves and shows the picture. Cards must name each wave, each interaction and each transmit or capture step. Students check their card against the four-part structure from Direct Instruction: the wave, the interaction, what is transmitted or captured, and the audience.
Closure5 minutes
Exit ticket: "Name one device that transmits information and one that captures energy. For each, name the wave behavior or interaction it depends on." Return to the warm-up phone list and have students add the wave behavior next to each job.
Differentiation Strategies
For Struggling Students
Give a partly filled two-by-two table (transmit or capture, information or energy) and a word bank of wave behaviors
Provide a three-sentence frame: "This device uses ___ waves. It depends on ___ (the interaction). It transmits / captures ___ (information or energy)."
Let students explain a device aloud or with a labeled sketch first, then write the explanation
For Advanced Students
Have students compare two devices that do the same job with different waves, such as ultrasound and X-ray imaging, for an audience that must choose between them
Ask students to explain why fiber cables carry information farther without boosting than copper wires, using what happens to the signal along the way
Have students write a one-page technical brief that includes a labeled diagram, a limitations section and a glossary
Assessment Guidance
What to Look For
Check that every explanation names a specific wave behavior or interaction instead of a vague "the waves go to the device". Look for correct use of transmit and capture, and for students who say whether information, energy or both are moving. Listen for the misconception that solar panels collect heat, that X-ray images are photographs of light given off by bones, or that radio waves are a kind of sound. Judge the communication itself: accurate, clear for the stated audience, and supported by a labeled diagram.
02
Classroom Activities
3 Activities
1
Device Explainer Gallery
30 minGroups of 3-4
Each group draws one device card and one audience card, then makes a one-page explainer: a labeled sketch and 100-150 words that answer five prompts. Groups post their explainers and rotate through a gallery walk, leaving feedback on sticky notes.
Cards
Device cards (5): rooftop solar panel, hospital X-ray room, ultrasound scanner, fiber optic internet line, cell phone network.
Audience cards (4): patients in a waiting room, a city council deciding on a project, a class of sixth graders, readers of a local newspaper.
The Five Prompts
Which wave does the device use?
Which wave behavior or interaction with matter does it depend on?
Does it transmit, capture or both?
Does it move information, energy or both?
What is one limitation, and what wave behavior causes it?
Gallery Feedback Checklist
Is the science accurate? Mark any sentence that is wrong.
Would the named audience understand every word?
Does the sketch label the wave and the interaction?
Write one question the explainer does not answer yet.
Modification for Distance Learning
Students make a single slide with a labeled sketch and a 60-second voice recording, post it to the class board, and answer two classmates' feedback questions.
2
Mini Solar Cell Investigation
25 minPairs
Pairs connect a small solar cell to a multimeter set to measure current and test how the light reaching the cell changes the energy it captures. They then write a short technical note recommending where to mount a solar-powered school sensor.
Procedure
Place the cell flat under an LED desk lamp. Measure the current with the lamp 10, 20, 30 and 40 cm above the cell.
At 20 cm, cover the cell with a clear plastic sheet, a red filter, a blue filter and a piece of cardboard, one at a time, and record the current each time.
Then tilt the cell with a protractor and describe how the current changes as the cell turns away from the lamp.
Safety: use an LED lamp, not a halogen or incandescent bulb, which gets hot; do not stare into the lamp; keep the multimeter on its current setting only as the teacher shows.
Sample Data (invented)
Current at 10, 20, 30 and 40 cm: 42, 12, 5 and 3 mA. At 20 cm: no cover 12 mA, clear plastic 11 mA, red filter 5 mA, blue filter 3 mA, cardboard 0 mA.
Discussion Questions
Moving from 10 cm to 20 cm cut the current to less than a third. What happened to the amount of light reaching each square centimeter of the cell?
Cardboard was the only cover that stopped the current completely. What did the cardboard do to the light, and what did the clear plastic do?
The colored filters let only part of the lamp's light through. How does that explain their results?
Write two sentences for the school facilities manager: where should the sensor's solar cell be mounted, and why?
Modification for Distance Learning
Students analyze the sample data and Diagram 2, then write the technical note for the facilities manager and post it with a labeled sketch of the best mounting position.
3
Light Pipes and Pulse Codes
25 minGroups of 3
Groups first see total internal reflection guide light along a curved path, then use light pulses to send a coded word, and finally write a newsletter paragraph explaining how fiber optic internet carries information.
Part A: Light Pipe
Poke a hole near the bottom of a clear plastic bottle, fill it with water over a tray, and let a smooth stream flow out. In a darkened room, shine a low-power laser pointer through the bottle straight into the hole from the opposite side.
Watch the light follow the curving stream and glow where the stream breaks up. Repeat with a clear acrylic rod bent gently, or a fiber-optic toy.
Safety: use only a Class 2 laser pointer (under 1 mW), never aim it at anyone's eyes, and keep the multimeters and other electronics away from the water.
Part B: Pulse Code
Each letter is its position in the alphabet written as 5 on-off pulses (A = 00001, B = 00010, and so on). For example, WAVE is 10111 00001 10110 00101: 20 time slots, 10 of them flashes. One student sends a secret four-letter word with a flashlight, one decodes, and one records errors. Send it once across the room with the room lights on and once through the acrylic rod or fiber-optic toy into a cupped hand.
Discussion Questions
What kept the light inside the water stream, and why did it escape where the stream broke into drops?
Which way of sending pulses gave fewer errors, and why?
Write a four-sentence paragraph for the school newsletter that explains how a fiber optic internet line carries information. Name the wave, the interaction and what is transmitted and captured.
Challenge Variation
Groups design a way to send two bits at once, for example with two colors of light, and explain how the receiver could tell them apart.
03
Diagrams & Visual Aids
2 diagrams
Diagram 1: Total Internal Reflection Guides Light Pulses
Light pulses from a source enter a clear acrylic rod. The ray is drawn to scale for acrylic: it meets the surface at 60° from the normal, more than the critical angle of about 42°, so it reflects back inside every time and reaches the detector. Glass fibers for internet use the same total internal reflection to transmit information as on-off pulses.
Diagram 2: Solar Panel Output and the Angle of the Light (Invented Data)
Invented readings from one 1.0 m² solar panel at midday, drawn to scale. Output is greatest when sunlight strikes the panel squarely and falls as the panel turns away, because the same panel then intercepts less of the light. The panel captures energy; how much depends on how much light it absorbs.
04
Homework Assignment
~30 min
HS-PS4-5 Homework: Explaining How Devices Use Waves
Directions: All data and excerpts are invented for practice. Answer in complete sentences and write for the audience named in each problem. In every answer, name the wave, the wave behavior or interaction with matter, and whether information, energy or both are transmitted or captured. No calculations are needed.
Part 1: Capturing Energy and Information (Problems 1-2)
A hiker carries a folding solar charger for her phone. Write a short set of instructions (4-5 tips) that helps her capture as much energy as possible, and explain the wave behavior behind each tip. Use Diagram 2 as evidence for at least one tip.
Doctors use an endoscope, a thin flexible tube containing bundles of glass fibers, to see inside a patient's stomach. Write a paragraph for a patient that explains how light gets to the stomach lining and how the image gets back out, even though the tube bends.
Part 2: Transmitting Information (Problems 3-4)
Two school buildings 300 m apart need a data link. An invented comparison table lists: copper cable (must be dug in; can pick up electrical noise from nearby motors and lightning), fiber optic cable (must be dug in; carries light, so electrical noise does not affect it), and a rooftop microwave radio link (no digging; needs a clear straight path between the dishes; heavy rain can weaken the signal). Write a one-paragraph memo to the principal recommending one option and explaining the wave behavior behind each advantage and drawback.
Describe, as a labeled sketch plus a caption of 4-6 sentences, how a photo you take with your phone reaches a friend's phone in another city. Include at least one step where waves are captured and one where they are transmitted, and name the wave used at each step.
Part 3: Critiquing and Revising (Problems 5-6)
An invented infographic says: "5G millimeter-wave signals use much higher frequencies than older networks, so they can carry more data. But they are stopped more easily by walls, leaves and even your hand, so many more small antennas are needed." Evaluate the accuracy and clarity of the infographic. Which statements are supported by wave behavior, and how would you improve it for a general audience?
Write a technical brief (150-200 words) for a town council that is deciding whether to install solar-powered streetlights. Explain how each light's panel captures energy from sunlight during the day and how its LED lamp transmits energy as light at night. Include one limitation of each part and one wave behavior that affects where the lights should be placed.
Rubric
Criterion
Full Credit (2 pts)
Partial Credit (1 pt)
Wave Behavior and Interaction
Names the correct wave and the specific behavior or interaction (reflection, total internal reflection, absorption, transmission, interference) for each device
Names the wave but the interaction is vague or partly wrong
Transmit, Capture, Information, Energy
Correctly says what is transmitted or captured and whether it is information, energy or both
Classification is incomplete or mixes up transmitting and capturing
Communication
Accurate, well organized and written for the named audience, with a labeled sketch where asked
Mostly accurate but unclear for the audience or missing the sketch
05
Quiz: 20 Questions
Interactive, with answers
Instructions
All data and excerpts are invented. Every question asks for a qualitative explanation, so no calculations are needed. Your score updates as you answer, and Reset quiz clears everything so you or your students can try again.
Multiple choice: pick an option to check it. Short answer: write your answer, then reveal the model answer.
0 of 20 answered · 0 correct
Question 1 of 20 · Multiple Choice
A microwave oven heats a bowl of soup. Which description of the wave behavior is best?
Answer: A
The oven transmits energy: metal walls and the door's metal mesh reflect microwaves, keeping them inside, and water molecules absorb them, so the food warms. Choice C reverses the interaction: energy that is reflected is not absorbed and cannot heat the soup. Choice D describes the walls as absorbers, but they are reflectors. Choice B confuses microwaves with sound.
Question 2 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Noise-cancelling headphones have a small microphone on the outside of each ear cup. How do they reduce steady background noise?
Answer: B
The microphone captures the incoming noise, and electronics play a wave whose crests line up with the noise's troughs, so the waves cancel (destructive interference). Choice A describes ordinary padding, which helps but cannot cancel steady low sounds. Choice D misunderstands what a microphone does: capturing a copy of the sound does not remove the sound itself.
Question 3 of 20 · Multiple Choice
A store's barcode scanner shines a red light across a barcode. How does it capture the information?
Answer: C
The information is the pattern of reflection and absorption along the code, captured by a light sensor and decoded. Choice A is wrong because the bars do not emit light; they absorb it. Choice B describes transmission, but the label is not transparent. Choice D confuses capturing information with heating.
Question 4 of 20 · Multiple Choice
A pulse oximeter clips onto a fingertip. It shines red and infrared light through the finger, and a sensor on the other side measures how much of each gets through. What lets it tell how much oxygen the blood carries?
Answer: A
Oxygen-rich and oxygen-poor blood absorb the two colors differently, so the ratio of the light transmitted through the finger captures information about oxygen. Choice B invents emission by oxygen. Choice D is false: red and infrared photons are far too low in energy to ionize, which is why the device is safe to wear for hours.
Question 5 of 20 · Multiple Choice
A police radar gun sends microwaves toward an approaching car. What does the gun capture that tells it the car's speed?
Answer: B
The gun transmits microwaves and captures the reflection; a moving car shifts the frequency of the echo (higher when it approaches), and the size of the shift reveals the speed. Choice A describes a thermal camera, not radar. Choice D describes transmission: the gun detects the reflection, not waves that pass through.
Question 6 of 20 · Multiple Choice
A phone's face unlock projects thousands of invisible infrared dots onto your face, and an infrared camera captures them. Why can the phone recognize the shape of your face?
Answer: C
The phone transmits a known pattern of infrared, your face reflects it, and the distortions in the captured pattern reveal your face's 3D shape. Choice A confuses capturing information with heating: the dots are far too weak to warm skin. Choice B describes X-ray imaging, not infrared.
Question 7 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Which device captures energy rather than information?
Answer: C
The dark panel absorbs sunlight and the absorbed energy heats water, so it captures energy. The GPS receiver (choice A) captures radio waves and the microphone (choice D) captures sound waves, both to get information. The TV remote (choice B) transmits information as infrared pulses.
Question 8 of 20 · Multiple Choice
How does a GPS receiver in a phone find its location?
Answer: A
A GPS receiver only captures: each satellite transmits radio signals that carry precise timing, and the receiver compares arrival times from at least four satellites to find its position. Choice B describes radar, but the receiver does not transmit to the satellites. Choices C and D do not describe GPS at all.
Question 9 of 20 · Multiple Choice
A fishing boat's fish finder uses sound, not radio waves, to locate fish under water. Why?
Answer: D
The device must transmit and capture waves through water, and sea water absorbs radio waves strongly while sound travels well; the echoes carry the information. Choice A is false: radio waves are far faster than sound. Choice C is false: fish also reflect light and radio waves; the problem with radio waves is that sea water absorbs them before they get far.
Question 10 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Which sentence is the most accurate explanation of a digital camera for a general audience?
Answer: B
The camera captures information: refraction by the lens forms the image, and the sensor absorbs the light and records it as numbers. Choice A describes a device that transmits, but a camera without a flash only captures light that is already there. Choice C is wrong because the card stores numbers, not light. Choice D swaps absorption for reflection.
Question 11 of 20 · Multiple Choice
A self-driving car uses lidar, which sends out short pulses of laser light. How does lidar measure the distance to a cyclist?
Answer: C
Lidar transmits light pulses and captures the reflections; the time for the round trip reveals the distance, and many pulses together build a 3D map. Choice A describes a thermal camera. Choice D names information a camera could capture, but color does not tell distance.
Question 12 of 20 · Multiple Choice
In hilly country, AM radio stations can often be heard in valleys where FM stations fade out. Which wave behavior explains this?
Answer: A
AM wavelengths are hundreds of meters long, while FM wavelengths are about 3 m, and longer waves bend around obstacles the size of hills more easily. Choice B is backward: AM has the lower frequency. Choice C confuses radio waves with sound: both AM and FM are electromagnetic waves.
Question 13 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Solar cells are dark and have an anti-reflective coating on their silicon surface. Why does the coating matter?
Answer: D
Bare silicon reflects a large share of the light that hits it; the coating cuts that reflection, so more light is absorbed and turned into electrical energy. Choice A is a misconception: solar cells capture light, and extra heat lowers their output. Choice B would waste light instead of capturing it.
Question 14 of 20 · Multiple Choice
A weather service brochure says: "Doppler radar emits pulses of microwave radiation that are backscattered by hydrometeors." Which revision is best for a general audience?
Answer: B
The revision keeps the science (transmit pulses, reflection from precipitation, capture echoes) and replaces jargon with plain words. Choice A adds an inaccurate scare word: microwave photons cannot ionize. Choices C and D change the wave: radar uses microwaves, not sound or visible light.
Question 15 of 20 · Short Answer
Classify each device as transmitting or capturing, and as moving information or energy: (a) a Wi-Fi router streaming a video to a laptop, (b) a motion sensor that switches on a porch light when a person walks by, (c) a solar garden light during the day, (d) an infrared heat lamp over a buffet.
(a) The router transmits information as radio waves (the laptop captures them). (b) The sensor captures information: it detects the change in infrared reaching it when a person moves in front of it. (c) The garden light captures energy: its small solar cell absorbs sunlight and charges a battery. (d) The heat lamp transmits energy: food absorbs the infrared and warms.
Question 16 of 20 · Short Answer
Write two or three sentences for a science museum sign that explain how an infrared ear thermometer measures body temperature without touching the eardrum.
Sample answer: "Everything warm gives off invisible infrared light, and warmer objects give off more. This thermometer captures the infrared coming from your eardrum with a sensor that absorbs it, and turns the amount into a temperature reading in about a second." Full credit names infrared, says the eardrum emits it and the sensor absorbs (captures) it, and is written for museum visitors.
Question 17 of 20 · Short Answer
An online explainer says: "A radio station is really a very loud speaker: radio waves are sound waves that travel through the air to your radio." Explain what is wrong and rewrite the sentence so that it is accurate.
Radio waves are electromagnetic waves, not sound; they travel at the speed of light and can cross empty space. The station turns the sound into a pattern in the radio wave, the radio's antenna captures the wave, and the radio turns the pattern back into sound. Sample rewrite: "A radio station changes sound into a pattern carried by radio waves; your radio captures those waves and turns the pattern back into sound."
Question 18 of 20 · Short Answer
A student measures Wi-Fi signal strength (in dBm; numbers closer to zero mean a stronger signal) around her home. Invented readings: same room as the router -42; through one wooden door -55; through two drywall walls -63; through a brick wall -72; through a metal fire door -86. Describe the pattern, explain it with wave interactions, and recommend where the router should go.
Pattern: the signal gets weaker with each barrier, and weakest through the metal door. Explanation: each material absorbs or reflects part of the radio waves; wood and drywall let most through, brick absorbs more, and metal reflects most of the signal. Recommendation: put the router in a central, open spot with few brick or metal barriers between it and the rooms where it is needed.
Question 19 of 20 · Short Answer
A phone's screen dims by itself when you walk into a dark room. Explain what the phone's light sensor captures and how this is an example of a device using a wave interaction with matter to capture information.
The sensor absorbs light from the room, and the absorbed light produces a small electrical signal that is larger in bright light and smaller in dim light. The phone reads that signal as information about the brightness and lowers the screen brightness to match. It captures information, not useful energy.
Question 20 of 20 · Short Answer
An invented flyer from a solar company says: "Our panels store sunlight inside them, so they keep making electricity all night." Explain what is wrong and write a corrected two-sentence version for homeowners.
Solar panels capture energy only while light is being absorbed; they cannot store light, so at night they produce nothing. Sample correction: "Our panels turn sunlight into electricity while the sun is shining. To use that energy at night, the system stores it in a battery."
0 of 20 answered · 0 correct
06
Frequently Asked Questions
10 Questions
What does HS-PS4-5 mean?
HS-PS4-5 asks students to explain, clearly and accurately, how technological devices use waves and wave interactions with matter to send and receive information and energy. The focus is on communication: students write, draw and present technical explanations. The code means High School, Physical Science, core idea 4 (Waves and Their Applications in Technologies for Information Transfer), performance expectation 5.
Is HS-PS4-5 taught in physics or engineering?
HS-PS4-5 is usually taught in Physics or Physical Science, often at the end of a unit on waves and light. It links well to engineering and technology courses, and some integrated science courses teach it alongside energy.
What is the assessment boundary for HS-PS4-5?
The official Assessment Boundary says: "Assesments are limited to qualitative information. Assessments do not include band theory." (The misspelling is in the official text.) Students explain devices in words and diagrams; they do not calculate, and they explain solar cells without energy bands.
What does "communicate technical information" look like in class?
It means students produce explanations that another person could use: a labeled diagram, a how-it-works card, a technical memo, a museum sign or a short presentation. Good work names the wave, the interaction with matter, and what is transmitted or captured, and it is written for a specific audience. Critiquing and revising someone else's explanation is part of the practice too.
How do you explain solar cells without band theory?
Say that the cell absorbs light, the absorbed light gives some electrons enough energy to move, and the structure of the cell pushes those electrons in one direction as a current. That qualitative model is enough for HS-PS4-5. Energy levels and bands in solids are beyond this standard.
What is the difference between transmitting and capturing?
A device transmits when it sends waves out, and captures when it absorbs waves and turns them into a signal or useful energy. Many devices do both: an ultrasound scanner transmits sound pulses to capture echoes, and a phone transmits and captures radio waves in every call.
Which wave behaviors do devices use?
Devices use reflection, refraction, absorption, transmission, total internal reflection and interference. For example, fiber optic cables use total internal reflection, eyeglass lenses use refraction, X-ray images depend on different tissues absorbing different amounts, and satellite TV dishes use reflection to focus a weak signal onto a receiver.
Is ultrasound the same as X-ray imaging?
No. Ultrasound uses high-frequency sound, a mechanical wave, and builds images from echoes reflected at tissue boundaries. X-ray imaging uses electromagnetic radiation and builds images from how much each tissue absorbs. Both are medical imaging devices that capture information, which is one of the official examples for HS-PS4-5.
Can students meet HS-PS4-5 without lab equipment?
Yes. The performance expectation is about communicating technical information, so students can analyze invented data, study diagrams, research a device and write or present an explanation. Simple materials such as a flashlight, a clear plastic bottle of water or a small solar cell make the ideas more concrete, but they are optional.
What comes after HS-PS4-5?
Students often move on to engineering design, for example HS-PS3-3, where they design, build and refine a device that converts one form of energy into another, such as a small solar-powered system. HS-PS4-5 also builds the skill of turning technical information into visual form, practiced in RST.9-10.7.
07
Related Standards
5 standards
These standards connect to HS-PS4-5: prerequisites to review first, parallel standards at the same level, and next steps that build on it.
Before this lesson
MS-PS4-3Prerequisite
Support the claim that digitized signals are a more reliable way to transmit information
NGSS is a registered trademark of WestEd. Neither WestEd nor the lead states and partners that developed the Next Generation Science Standards were involved in the production of this product, and do not endorse it.
