Berlin 2008 – scientific programme
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DD: Fachverband Didaktik der Physik
DD 7: Postersitzung
DD 7.6: Poster
Monday, February 25, 2008, 15:45–17:45, Poster E
Conception of a school lab spectrometer setup and selected experiments — •Felix Fähnrich1, Antje Bergmann2, Mario Hauser1, and Heinz Kalt1 — 1Institut für Angewandte Physik — 2Institut für Theoretische Festkörperphysik, Universität Karlsruhe
A spectrometer is an optical instrument with which the intensity of a particular fraction of the electromagnetic spectrum can be measured. Roughly explained it works as follows: The light passes a moveable slit and some lenses and hits a prism or a diffraction grating. The diffracted light is then recorded by a photo detector. In our school lab the students are given the opportunity to learn about the operation principles of a spectrometer. We offer two different devices: Firstly, we have developed a setup with which the students can carry out experiments on their own. They can vary the slit, change the grating, use various lenses and record the spectrum and evaluate it. For this first setup it is important that the assembly is adaptable and that the components are inexpensive. Therefore, we use a webcam as detector and CDs or DVDs as gratings. In this way, the students learn to understand the components and are able and motivated to build their own low-cost spectrometer at home. In order to receive results on a more advanced level we use a commercial spectrometer. Due to its higher resolution (2 nm), its UV sensibility and its portability many kinds of spectra can be obtained and evaluated quite comfortably.
In this contribution we introduce the above mentioned spectrometer setups and present experiments which are suitable and interesting for students and the respective results.