Light Energy Resources

Here are some resources which you might find helpful in your study of Light Energy.

Website: 

Optics for Kids

Video:

The Magic School Bus Gets A Bright Idea (Light)

Books:

 

Using a Prism to View a Rainbow

The Colors of White Light

This activity is to have students understand that WHITE LIGHT is actually made up of a SPECTRUM of colors.

                 Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet

Too cloudy....had to wait 2 days for the Sun!

Materials

• Prism
• Flashlight
• White wall, white ceiling, or white poster board
• Lots of natural sunlight, flashlight, or overhead projector light

Directions:

• Turn on a flashlight.
• Ask the children a question, "What color is light?"
• Tell them that we will be doing an activity/experiment to get the answer to our question.
• Put a prism in a very sunny window or have the students hold up a prism to the natural light or the flashlight, etc.
• The students should OBSERVE a rainbow on the wall, ceiling, or poster board.
• Discuss the students' observations.
• Have students SKETCH a picture of what they observed. 

 

Explanation: White light hits the glass prism. When the light hits the prism, it is slowed down and bent. When the colors come out the other side, they are bent again. Each color (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet) is bent by a different amount and the colors are separated.


More examples of light bending!
Materials needed: prism and straws or crayons
Directions: Place a prism over the straws or crayons. Have Fun!

Explanation: Light travels fastest through air. When light enters the glass prism it slows down and changes direction a little, making the straws or crayons look bent.




Have fun with rainbows!

 

Rainbow Tally Chart and Graph

Math Lesson

In the previous lesson, the kids learned that white light is really made up of the 7 colors in the spectrum.
In this activity, children can conduct a survey to find out their family and friends' favorite colors in the spectrum. They can follow up that activity by making a graph to display their data.

Materials

• clipboard or notebook
• pencil
• ruler
• crayons or markers

Directions

clipart by www.graphicsfactory.com

• Have students make a list or chart of the 7 colors of the color spectrum (remember ROY G BIV).

                *red
                *orange
                *yellow
                *green
                *blue
                *indigo
                *violet

• Have students poll their family and friends as to their favorite color. They should mark a tally for each vote.

• Next they could count the votes and create a tally chart or frequency chart with their data.

Tally Chart

   

Frequency Chart

• Older children should use the data in the tally chart to create a bar or other graph to display their results.The graph should include:

                     ~ title
                    ~ 7 columns (for the 7 colors)
                    ~ 2 labeled axis
                     ~a numerical scale starting at zero

• Finally students should explain their data (oral or written). Which color had the most votes? Which color had the fewest votes? Etc.
• More advanced math students can also find the mean, medium, mode, maximum, minimum, and range for the data.

Curved Mirrors - Concave and Convex

Concave or Convex

In an earlier blog post (Reflected Light) the kids learned that flat mirrors reverse images.

But not all mirrors are flat. Some mirrors are curved inward (concave). Some mirrors are curved outward (convex). This activity investigates curved mirrors.

Materials

shiny spoon(s)

Directions

• Have children PREDICT what they will see when they look into both sides of a spoon.
• Have children OBSERVE their own facial images using both sides of a spoon.
• Have them DESCRIBE their images. (Were they the same?)
• Have the children SKETCH what they saw on both sides of the spoon.

Concave

Convex

Explanation:

• On the hollow side of the spoon (which is like a concave mirror), your reflection will look bigger and be upside down.
• On the other side of the spoon that bulges out (which is like a convex mirror) your reflection will look smaller.

Follow-up
Have the children start to make a list of concave and convex mirrors that they observe in the home and neighborhood.


Examples:
Concave: most make-up mirrors, cosmetic mirrors, dentists' mirrors, telescopes
Convex: thumb tacks, passenger side mirrors in cars, security mirrors hanging from ceilings of stores, some sunglasses

Here is a free, fun Light Energy Word Search Puzzle on my website that you can download for your students. 

Click here: https://www.LearningWorkroom.com

Light Energy Puzzle

Have fun with science!

Light: Refraction

What happens to beams of LIGHT when they pass from one kind of material to another?
 

Materials 

• tall clear glass or plastic container
• water
• straw or pencil

Directions

• Fill 1/2 to 3/4 of the container with water.
• Place a pencil or straw in the water.
• Have the children OBSERVE the container.
• Ask them to DESCRIBE what they see.
• Ask the kids if they think the straw/pencil is bent.
• Have them take the straw/pencil out of the water to examine it.
• Then return the straw/pencil to the container.
• Can the children EXPLAIN what is happening?

Explanation: Light travels through materials. When light goes from one material (AIR) into a different material (WATER), its beams BEND.This bending of light beams is what causes the straw/pencil to look broken! This bending is called REFRACTION.

vegetable oil and water

Shadow Poem

Language Arts Here's a classic POEM which can be shared with your students as a follow up or  extension to the previous science activity (What Causes Shadows?).  My Shadow
By Robert Louis Stevenson
I have a little shadow that goes in and out with me, And what can be the use of him is more than I can see. He is very, very like me from the heels up to the head  And I see him jump before me, when I jump into my bed.  The funniest things about him is the way he likes to grow Not at all like proper children, which is always very slow; For he sometimes shoots up taller like an India rubber ball, And he sometimes gets so little that there's none of him at all. He hasn't got a notion of how children ought to play, And can only make a fool of me in every sort of way. He stays so close beside me, he's a coward you can see; I'd think shame to stick to nursie as that shadow sticks to me! One morning, very early, before the sun was up, I rose and found the shining dew on every buttercup; But my lazy little shadow, like an arrant sleepy-head, Had stayed at home behind me and was fast asleep in bed. This poem could lead to a discussion of the science concepts contained in the poem and/or could inspire the kids to write their own Shadow Poems.They could also illustrate the poem.