Safety boundary
Use simulations, printed optics, and eye-safe light only. Do not direct lasers or intense light at people.
Explicit physics instruction
This investigation preserves raw transmitted/received values before decoding or fitting a model.
Students may compare angle data, attenuation, or bit-error patterns depending on the supplied simulation.
The conclusion should distinguish measured signal change from inferred communication performance.
Vocabulary: transmission; attenuation; error rate; calibration; uncertainty.
Worked example
A 1000-bit message contains 12 incorrect bits after transmission, so bit error rate is 12/1000=1.2%.
Guided question
Which raw data must be preserved before calculating an error rate?
Independent work
- Preserve transmitted and received records.
- Calculate one quantitative comparison.
- Graph or tabulate a signal relationship.
- State uncertainty and one revision.
Investigation / Data Lab
Preserve raw transmission/optics data, calculations, processed metrics, uncertainty, and one revision.
Misconception check
A processed error percentage should not replace the original transmitted/received evidence.
Formative check
What supports a communication-performance claim?
Reveal response
Traceable raw data plus a defined metric such as error rate.
Mentor evidence conference
Ask Archaemenes to audit wave variables, encoding assumptions, metrics, and model limits.
Teacher guidance
Foundation: Use supplied data tables.
Core: Calculate and interpret performance metrics.
Extended: Compare two encoding/transmission strategies.