The Nature of Light

[Sigurd]

Are you referring to Wave–Particle Duality, Special Relativity, Quantum, Quantum Electrodynamics, or String Theory?

I guess all the above.

Do you remember what you were taught first? Was it only about light being particles?
Then later in a more advanced class you learned that light also had wave attributes. From there it snowballed...
Mind you I never took any science classes at university. The last physics class I had was in secondary school.

[Reenk Roink]

Well I can't be of much help with your light example (I didn't take physics in high school, only college), though if I remember correctly, light was classically thought to be 'wave' in nature (don't know if this means that it was first taught as a wave and then the particle properties were brought up later - I was taught that it exhibited both properties from the start).

There are some other examples you can use that follow the progression you are looking for however. Classical Mechanics which I'm almost certain is taught (in high school) before Quantum Mechanics would be a good one (even in a Physics program in college, you start with classical mechanics and then progress).

Perhaps another example though somewhat more complicated is Valence Bond Theory and Molecular Orbital Theory when discussing why covalent bonds form.

[Sigurd]

Well I can't be of much help with your light example (I didn't take physics in high school, only college), though if I remember correctly, light was classically thought to be 'wave' in nature (don't know if this means that it was first taught as a wave and then the particle properties were brought up later - I was taught that it exhibited both properties from the start).

There are some other examples you can use that follow the progression you are looking for however. Classical Mechanics which I'm almost certain is taught (in high school) before Quantum Mechanics would be a good one (even in a Physics program in college, you start with classical mechanics and then progress).

Perhaps another example though somewhat more complicated is Valence Bond Theory and Molecular Orbital Theory when discussing why covalent bonds form.

Yes, it doesn't really have to be light. But I need a common basic concept to start off with.
The audience would probably be lost with too scientific stuff. All though, for effect - the last step or steps should be new knowledge to the audience - showing that they might be somewhere along the progression line but not at the end.

Someone did a beautiful progressive knowledge model using light as the example.
I thought it was a member of this site.

To make my example genuine, I need to make the correct knowledge steps but I can't really find what pupils are specifically taught in the different levels of education.

It has been too long since I sat on a school bench. I had hopes that some of you good orgahs who currently work in or take education could help me out here.

[ajaxfetish]

I think I learned about it being a wave first, and I suppose that's the oldest interpretation. Weren't studies with prisms and such a feature of Newtonian-era science? It was in Jr. High that I was first taught about the particle nature of light in any depth, and about wave-particle duality, though I think I'd become familiar with the term 'photon' earlier. If there's something beyond particle/wave, and I suppose there probably is, I never went that far in the hard sciences.

Ajax