Diffraction Gratings and Emission Spectra - AAQ Pearson Applied Science

Complete “Ready to go” lesson with no adapting necessary!
New for AAQ Pearson Applied Science BTEC from Sept 2025 Specification
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This lesson covers:
•Introduction to what diffraction and diffraction gratings are using a harbour as an example to introduce the concept
•Full explanation of what path difference is with clear animation and how this along with phase difference leads to superposition causing the results of diffraction gratings. This is accompanied by a diagram with parts to label to explain the full results for students
•What white light is followed by a description and explanation of the results of diffraction gratings using white light along with examples from the real world of the effect of diffraction of white light. The student task that follows this is built upon an exam question on the old 2016 Applied Science specification.
•Introduction to what spectrometry is, followed by what emission spectrometry is, why the results occur in terms of electrons and energy and how it links to identifying elements.
•Student tasks on emission spectra involve putting the stages of how emission spectrometry works in order and exam questions where students observe patterns to identify unknown elements

*I personally think this topic is quite hard for students to wrap their heads around so there is a cheat sheet and tasks are more structured and guided with gap fills to guide and encourage students to be explaining diffraction grating results in terms of phase difference, path difference and superposition.

PRINTING REQUIREMENTS: Diffraction grating diagram explanation (4 copies per page)
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This lesson follows my usual style and contains:
•Recall starter to build retention of previously learned content
•Clear levelled learning objectives and outcomes
•Clear and modern layout utilising GIFS and Youtube
• Variety of tasks and plenaries with self assessment to assess progress
• ANSWERS INCLUDED!

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