HS-PS4-5: How Technology Uses Waves
Also called NGSS HS-PS4-5 · Topic: Waves and Electromagnetic Radiation · Physical Science
The Official Wording
Communicate technical information about how some technological devices use the principles of wave behavior and wave interactions with matter to transmit and capture information and energy.
Clarification statement: Examples could include solar cells capturing light and converting it to electricity; medical imaging; and communications technology.
Assessment boundary: Assessments are limited to qualitative information. Assessments do not include band theory.
NGSS Lead States, 2013 · Read it on nextgenscience.org · checked October 15, 2026
What HS-PS4-5 Means in Plain English
Students explain, in writing, diagrams or presentations, how real devices use waves to carry information or energy. Examples include optical fiber guiding light, solar cells turning light into electricity, ultrasound and X-ray imaging, and phones sending radio signals.
Explanations stay descriptive, with no math and no band theory of how solar cells work inside. This pulls together HS-PS4-1 through HS-PS4-4, builds on MS-PS4-3, and fits the engineering work of judging solutions in HS-ETS1-3.
HS-PS4-5 I Can Statements
- I can explain how a device uses waves to send information.
- I can describe how optical fiber keeps light inside.
- I can explain a technology clearly to a classmate.
HS-PS4-5 Worked Example
A design challenge where a stream of water carries a laser signal, the same idea as optical fiber.
How can a light signal reach a target the laser cannot point at directly?
Set It Up: A clear plastic bottle with a small hole near the bottom, water, a laser pointer, a small mirror, a basin, and a darkened room.
- Define the problem: get a blinking signal around a bend to a target in the basin.Target hidden from a straight beam
- Try the mirror to bounce the beam to the target.Works, but one nudge loses the beam
- Let water pour from the hole and aim the laser through the bottle into the stream.Light follows the curved jet and glows where it lands
- Blink the laser in a pattern and read it at the basin.The same pattern arrives
- Write an explainer with a diagram showing how optical fiber uses this effect to carry internet data.Diagram of light zigzagging down a glass core
The curved water jet trapped the light and carried the blinking pattern to the target, and it was easier to keep aimed than the mirror.
Why it works: Light that meets the edge of water or glass at a grazing slant cannot escape and bounces back inside, so a fiber guides light and its signal around gentle bends.
Common Mistakes with HS-PS4-5
Thinking light leaks through the fiber walls
“The light shines straight through the glass and out the side.”
Try this: Inside the fiber, light hits the edge at a shallow angle and reflects back in completely, bouncing along the core to the far end.
Confusing sound and radio waves
“Phones send your voice as sound waves through the air.”
Try this: The phone turns your voice into a code carried by radio waves, which are electromagnetic, and the other phone turns it back into sound.
Explaining with jargon only
An explainer that just says “total internal reflection”
Try this: Name the term, then describe what happens in plain words and add a labeled diagram, so a reader new to the idea can follow.
Where HS-PS4-5 Fits
Practice HS-PS4-5
Quick Check
- How does an optical fiber keep light from escaping?
- What kind of wave does a cell phone use to send messages?
- What does a solar cell do with light?