Students will work in small groups to conduct a hands-on investigation to see what materials allow light to pass through. They will label materials as opaque, translucent, and transparent. They will operate solar panels and place different materials between the sun and the panel. The panel is attached to a fan which will stop, continue spinning or slow down depending on the material. Learners will record their findings in chart form.
This lesson was created as part of the 2016 NASA STEM Standards of Practice Project, a collaboration between the Alabama State Department of Education and NASA Marshall Space Flight Center.
Students will use transparent, translucent, opaque, and reflective items that they find around the classroom or school to investigate how light passes through an object. This activity will demonstrate how light behaves around objects. The first investigation will take students on a scavenger hunt to find objects that fit each type. Students will classify each object using a flashlight and analyzing how light passes through the object. Then the final investigation will allow students to experiment with how the amount of light that each type allow effects the rate at which ice will melt.
This lesson results from a collaboration between the Alabama State Department of Education and ASTA.
This is a STEAM activity that allows students to reinforce their knowledge of materials that allow and do not allow light to pass through an object. The students will build an opaque Lego tower and use its shadow to create a piece of artwork.
This activity results from the ALEX Resource Gap Project.
This is an art activity to reinforce which materials allow light to pass through. This activity should be completed after teaching a lesson on opaque, translucent, and transparent. Students can complete this project individually, with a partner, or in a group.
This activity was created as a result of the Arts COS Resource Development Summit.
This short video from The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That!, teaches about physical science, energy, and light. Thing 1 tries clear, tinted, and opaque glass, to create a shade for Thing 2. He decides that opaque glass provides the best shade and relief from the sun.
Light is a very important energy source that keeps us warm and lets us see the world. Light travels in waves in bundles of energy called photons. Those photons contain all seven colors in the rainbow. Grab a prism and check them out!
The classroom resource provides a video that describes light, how it moves, and how it helps us see. This resource can provide background information for students before they construct their own models and carry out their own investigations. There is also a short test that can be used to assess students' understanding.
Light always travels in a straight line until something gets in its way. When that happens, light can be absorbed, reflected (bounced off), or refracted (bent), depending on what kind of surface it hits.
The classroom resource provides a video that will explain how light can move on and through different surfaces. This resource can provide background information for students before they create their own models or conduct their own investigations. There is also a short test that can be used to assess students' understanding.
A scientific theory is a proposed description, explanation, or model of something occurring in nature. These theories have to be testable so that scientists can use the scientific method to see if they work.
The classroom resource provides a video that will introduce students to the scientific method, developing hypotheses, and collecting evidence. There is a karaoke song that students can learn to help them remember the steps in the scientific method. Students can use the information presented in this video to follow the scientific method as they plan their own investigations. There is also a short test that can be used to assess students' understanding.
Scientists are always working to better understand the world. They use the scientific method to help them. The scientific method includes making observations, developing hypotheses, designing experiments, collecting data, and then drawing conclusions.
The classroom resource provides a video that will introduce students to the scientific method and experimentation. There is a karaoke song that students can learn to help them remember the steps in the scientific method. Students can use the information presented in this video to follow the scientific method as they plan their own investigations. There is also a short test that can be used to assess students' understanding.
When scientists conduct experiments, they collect data through observation and measurement. There are many different ways to measure data, but they all help ensure that scientists can collect accurate information.
The classroom resource provides a karaoke song that will describe how scientists collect data as they experiment. Students can use the information presented in this audio resource as they plan their own investigations. There is also a short test that can be used to assess students' understanding.
Children move an object in front of a flashlight and observe how its shadow changes in this interactive game from PEEP and the Big Wide World. As children slide the object closer to and farther away from the light until its shadow matches the size of the object’s outline on the wall, they discover that when an object is moved closer to the light source, it blocks more light and its shadow becomes larger. Children also explore how changing the position of the light changes the direction in which the shadow of the object falls.
To view the Activity, Student Handout, and Teaching Tips for this interactive game, go to Support Materials. This resource was developed through WGBH’s Bringing the Universe to America’s Classrooms project, in collaboration with NASA.
The teacher will present an informational text from the website, ReadWorks. The students and teacher can interact with this non-fiction text by annotating the text digitally. The students will answer the questions associated with the article as an assessment. This learning activity can be used as an introduction to transparent, translucent, opaque, and reflective materials, serve as reinforcement after students have already learned these concepts, or be used as an assessment at the conclusion of a lesson. This informational text could provide background knowledge before students investigate materials that are transparent, translucent, opaque, or reflective.