Today was not the best day of AP Physics 2. At first I considered some sort of a paradigm lab involving solar cells, but after trying various equipment and light sources, I couldn’t come up with something effective. If anyone has a good introduction activity for the photoelectric effect, please let me know!
Instead, I ended up with a series of demonstrations that I hoped would provoke good discussions. We observed various amount of current produced by a solar cell based on the intensity of the incident light. We also observed how the solar cell could like a red LED but could not light a blue LED regardless of the intensity. We observed fluorescent chalk under a UV light. We asked a bunch of questions which we will answer over the next several days. I wish I had a zinc plate to attach to an electroscope to demonstrate the photoelectric effect.
Not a great lesson, but a few good questions raised.
##modern ##setbacks