Plasma Phenomenon
Created by Allyson Endsley from Noun Project
Teacher Guide

Plasma Phenomenon

Plasma Phenomenon

This is the teacher guide for this lesson. A student-focused guide to assist learners as they perform the activity is available.

View the student guide: Plasma Phenomenon

Where does plasma exist in our universe? What are the characteristics of plasmas?

  • One set of cards per class:
  • 16 Plasma Phenomena Cards
  • 16 Plasma Temperature Cards
  • 16 Plasma Density Cards

The students will be able to identify and categorize plasma and its associated phenomenon.

  • Total time
    45 min - 60 min
  • Education level
    Grades 6 - 10
  • Content Area
    Structure and Properties of Matter
  • Educational topic
    Plasma Science, states of matter

In this activity, we'll explore the fascinating world of plasma and its uses. Plasma, the fourth state of matter, is an electrified gas found throughout the universe. Despite its abundance, plasma is often overlooked because it's a relatively new discovery compared to solids, liquids, and gasses. Scientists first identified laboratory plasma in the late 1800s, calling it "radiant matter." The term "plasma" was introduced about 100 years ago by Irving Langmuir, who noticed that gasses under high temperatures or electric fields behaved uniquely. He named it "plasma," inspired by the Greek word for "moldable substance," and related it to blood plasma because of its transport properties.

Plasma forms when a gas is energized until its atoms or molecules become ionized, creating charged particles. This makes plasma distinct from other states of matter. As students will see in the Plasma Phenomenon Cards, plasma exists in various conditions, from extremely hot stars to moderate-temperature technological applications. Scientists use temperature and density to define plasma's characteristics and applications. Temperature shows the particles' energy, while density measures the number of charged particles in a volume.

By studying plasma, scientists unlock new technological advancements and a deeper understanding of the universe. This activity will allow your students to do the same!

Teacher Tips:

  1. Suggested STEP UP Everyday Actions to incorporate into activity
    1. When pairing students, try to have male/female partners and invite female students to share their ideas first
    2. As you put students into groups, consider having female or minority students take the leadership role.
    3. Take note of female participation. If they seem to be taking direction and following along, elevate their voice by asking them a question about their experiment.
  2. Consider using white boards so students have time to work through their ideas and brainstorms before saying them out loud.
  3. As students experiment, roam around the room to listen in on discussion and notice experiment techniques. If needed, stop the class and call over to a certain group that has hit on an important concept.
  4. Consider culturally responsive tools and strategies and/or open ended reflection questions to help push student thinking, have students track their thinking during the activity, connect to their lives, and create opportunities to develop STEM identity.
  5. Allow the work of physicists to come alive by signing up for a virtual visit from a working physicist using APS’s Physicist To-Go program. You can request a plasma scientist to talk about the concepts students learned in this activity!
Key terms

In this activity, students will go on an exciting journey to explore the amazing world of plasma and its different uses and cool features. Plasma is the fourth state of matter and is a special kind of electrified gas found everywhere in the universe. Even though plasma is very common, people often forget about it. In this activity, students will check out different plasma phenomena and sort them by temperature and density. They will also look for patterns in this state of matter.

  • Plasma:: One of the four fundamental states of matter, characterized by the presence of a significant portion of charged particles in any combination of ions or electrons.
  • Phenomenon:: An observable fact or event of scientific interest.
  • Temperature:: The average energy of the particles. Used to measure how hot or cold an object is. The unit used to measure temperature by scientists is the Kelvin (1 K = - 457.87 °F = - 272.15 °C - very cold (negative) numbers)
  • Plasma Density:: Measures the number of charged particles in a given volume. Since plasmas are charged, ionized gasses, we can measure density by looking at the electrons in a space. In plasma, "electron density" means the number of free electrons in a certain amount of space. We measure it by counting how many electrons are in one cubic meter, which is written as e/m³.
  • Glossary of Plasma Phenomenon: This can be shared with students to help guide their categorizing:
  • Ionosphere:: The ionosphere is a plasma layer in Earth's upper atmosphere, extending from approximately 80 to 1000 kilometers above the surface.
  • Magnetosphere:: Above the Ionosphere is the Magnetosphere. It surrounds the Earth and contains plasma trapped within our planet's magnetic field.
  • Lightning:: Lightning is a plasma created inside a storm cloud caused by collisions between ice particles. The collisions create a separation of electrical charges, or ions. Positive charges accumulate at the top of the cloud, while negative charges gather at the bottom. This creates a plasma. When the electrical field becomes strong enough, it overcomes the insulating properties of the air, and a rapid discharge of electricity occurs.
  • Comet Tails:: As a comet approaches the Sun, the solar radiation heats and excites the gas and dust particles in the “tail” of the comet, causing them to create a plasma.
  • Aurora Borealis:: The mesmerizing auroras, also known as the Northern and Southern Lights, occur when charged particles from the solar wind interact with Earth's magnetosphere. Solar wind is a stream of charged particles (plasma) released from the upper atmosphere of the Sun. When these particles hit the Earth’s magnetosphere, they follow magnetic field lines of the Earth and collect at the Earth’s North and South Poles. When these particles collide with gasses in the atmosphere, they excite atoms and molecules in the gasses, causing them to emit light of different colors, depending on the type of gas.
  • The Sun:: Our closest star, the Sun, is an enormous ball of plasma.
  • Solar Wind:: The solar wind is a continuous stream of charged particles emitted by the Sun, primarily electrons and protons.
  • Black Hole Accretion Disks:: As matter approaches a black hole, it falls into a swirling disk of hot, ionized gas (plasma). The matter quickly becomes heated and excited as well as it is pulled by the gravitational force of the black hole. This forms a swirling accretion disk of plasma. These disks can reach extremely high temperatures due to the friction and transfer of energy of all the matter being pulled in!
  • Nebula (singular):: Nebulae (plural) are vast regions of interstellar space that contain gas and dust, often serving as cosmic nurseries for stars.
  • The Interstellar Medium:: The interstellar medium refers to the vast space between stars, filled with gas and dust.
  • Neon Signs:: Neon signs create vibrant displays using plasma contained within glass tubes. Neon signs have a distinctive appearance due to their vivid colors and glowing effect which changes with the type of plasma contained within the tube.
  • Tokamaks (DIII-D):: Tokamaks are experimental devices used in fusion energy research to confine and control plasma. General Atomics’ DIII-D Tokamak is located at the National Fusion Facility in San Diego, California. The goal of the Tokamaks is to use plasma fuel as a source to create electricity for all of us to use in our homes. If we figure out how to make this form of energy consistently and cheaply, it would provide a very low polluting, non-CO2 emitting energy source.
  • Stellarators (W7-X):: Stellarators are another type of fusion device used to study plasma confinement for energy production. Wendelstein 7-X is a stellarator at the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics (IPP) in Greifswald, Germany.
  • Plasma Globe:: Plasma globes light up when electricity passes through special gasses inside a glass ball, turning the gasses into a glowing plasma. The electricity makes the plasma create cool patterns and colors that move when you touch the globe.
  • Ion Thruster:: Ion thrusters are used in spacecraft propulsion systems. They operate on the principle of accelerating charged particles to generate thrust.
  • Fluorescent Light Bulbs: : Fluorescent lights work by passing electricity through a tube filled with mercury vapor and coated with phosphor. The electricity ionizes the mercury vapor into a plasma, causing the mercury atoms to emit ultraviolet light. This ultraviolet light then excites the phosphor coating, making it glow and produce visible light.
Objectives

*The students will be able to identify and categorize plasma and its associated phenomenon.

*It is important to understand that student goals may be different and unique from the lesson goals. We recommend leaving room for students to set their own goals for each activity. 

Before the experiment

  • Modify, change, reformat, upload the student guide provided into the format or platform you like to use with your students (e.g. google suite, learning management software, word document, etc.)

  • Review together: Before diving into the plasma phenomenon cards, let's review the other states of matter.

    1. Ask students to think of one or two characteristics for the other three states of matter (solid, liquid, and gas).
    2. Collect these ideas on a white board where the whole class can view.

  • Ask & Discuss: What is one similarity between all three? What is one difference?

  • Introduce plasma as the 4th state of matter.

    1. How do you think plasma compares to these three states?

  • Use the turn & talk protocol

    1. Pair students up
    2. Give them a minute to think quietly
    3. Give students 2 minutes to discuss their thinking
    4. Have students record their answers or share out to the whole group
Setting up

  • There is lots of scientific notation in this activity. Perhaps a review and/or a discussion with the math teacher beforehand would be beneficial.

  • Review the temperature unit Review the temperature unit Kelvin (K). Explanation can be found in the Teacher Background above.

  • Place large axes on the board, on the floor with tape, on the lab tables

    1. Temperature (Kelvin) on the X-axis and Density (e/m3 ) on the Y-axis. (Example with answers below)

  • Make sure students are put into intentional groups.

  • The goal of the challenges is for students to develop a scientific strategy to characterize the different plasma phenomenon displayed in the cards into three intentional groups. An example of a classification could be Astrophysical Plasmas, Terrestrial (on or relating to Earth) Plasmas, and Laboratory (artificial) Plasmas. Then to think about each phenomenon, read through the glossary, and determine what they think the temperature and density of each is. Place them on the axes you created. Check their work.

During the experiment
Collecting data
  • Challenge 1
    1. Pass out a few Plasma Phenomenon Cards to each group.
      1. Print out of the Glossary of Plasma Phenomenon (above) or have it posted somewhere so students can reference the phenomenon if they need more explanation of the cards if necessary.
    2. Have them think of a way to organize, characterize, or group them. (Answer key: Astrophysical Plasmas, Terrestrial (on or relating to Earth) Plasmas, and Laboratory (artificial) Plasmas)
      1. What criteria do they use to categorize their phenomenon? Have them write down their criteria.
    3. Progressively have the groups join their cards together to see if their classification system works and to test their strategy.
      1. Have them use their criteria with the new group to see if their categories hold up or need to add/take away.
    4. Bring class together to review characterization and put all 16 cards into an order designated by their characterization.
  • Challenge 2
    1. Give each group a few Plasma Temperature Cards.
    2. Have them assess the large range of temperatures in which plasma can exist and match specific temperatures to plasma phenomenon.
      1. Have the students describe their reasoning for this characterization using the glossary as a reference

    Bring class together to review characterization and put all 16 cards into an order designated by their characterization.

  • Challenge 3
    1. Initiate a conversation about density and how density is measured.
    2. Give each group a few Plasma Density Cards.
    3. Repeat the process of Challenge 2.
    4. Have students move all the cards into a ranking system by temperature and density to fill in on the axes you created.
  • Example

    Teacher Answer Key:

    Plasma Phenomenon Lesson Key

    Analyzing Data

    1. Bring the class together and to create the graph and discuss the challenges.
Conclusion
  1. Consider asking students these questions using one of these discussion protocols.
    1. What they found surprising about these challenges?
    2. What did they get out of this exploration of plasmas?
    3. What did they get out of the exercise of categorizing?
    4. Did this make them feel at all like a scientist? In what ways or why not?
    5. Was your personal essential question answered? If so, what is the answer? If not, what additional information would you need to answer it?

Introduce the Plasma Career Matching Tool - This tool can be used for any level. It matches students to relevant fusion energy/plasma scientists’ profiles based on their interests and values. They can then research, create their own profiles, and discuss with the class. Encourage your students to take this interactive Career Matching Survey to see what fusion energy/plasma science careers fit them best.

Real world connections

  • Plasma Career Matching Tool - This tool can be used for any level. It matches students to relevant fusion energy/plasma scientists’ profiles based on their interests and values. They can then research, create their own profiles, and discuss with the class. Encourage your students to take this interactive Career Matching Survey to see what fusion energy/plasma science careers fit them best.

Suggestions for drawing, illustrating, presenting content in creative ways

  • Have students create their own plasma phenomenon trading card. Picking their favorite plasma phenomenon (featured in the Plasma Phenomenon cards or otherwise), allow students to research into the key properties of their chosen type of plasma. Their card can include information about temperature, density, composition, etc. Allow them to choose a scale of points for how helpful this plasma can be for our world.

Engineering and design challenges connected to the content

  • PPPL IPPEX Remote Experiments: Have students conduct the Remote Glow Discharge Experiment or the Remote Planeterrella Experiment where they control a Plasma and observe it from their web browser.

**Real world situations/connections can be used as is, or changed to better fit a student’s own community and cultural context.

  • MS-PS1-1
    Develop models to describe the atomic composition of simple molecules and extended structures.
  • MS-PS1-4
    Develop a model that predicts and describes changes in particle motion, temperature, and state of a pure substance when thermal energy is added or removed.
  • Science and Engineering Practices (SEPs)
    Developing and Using Models ▪ Analyzing and Interpreting Data ▪ Constructing Explanations and Designing Solutions ▪ Obtaining, Evaluating, and Communicating Information
  • Cross Cutting Concepts (CCCs)
    Cause and Effect Energy and Matter Scale, Proportionality, and Quantity Systems and System Models Stability and Change

Credits

Created by Jessica Eskew - PhD candidate at Auburn University along with Nicole Schrode, MEd, and Claudia Fracchiolla, PhD, of APS Public Engagement

Reviewed by Kimberly Becker, Avery Jackson, Tiffany O’Dell, Joel Richardson, Allison Scherrer

Extensions by Amanda Maeglin

PhysicsQuest © 2024 by American Physical Society is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0

License

  1. Attribution — You must give appropriate credit , provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made . You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
  2. NonCommercial — You may not use the material for commercial purposes

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