Nature of Light: Students examine the sources of light, its travel in straight lines, shadows, and the application of the principles of its travel in a pinhole camera. In the lessons on color, they investigate the electromagnetic spectrum and its visible portion, colored light, and colored objects. Students also begin developing and evaluating two models—particle and wave—to explain the behaviors of light they investigate.
Reflection and Refraction:
Students investigate the reflection of light from plane and curved mirrors and the refraction through various media. They use their experimental data to develop an understanding of angles of reflection and refraction. Convex and concave lenses are used to produce images for investigation. Again, the wave and particle models are compared based on students’ experiments with refraction and reflection.
Using Light: After investigating the images produced by lenses, students use combinations of lenses to construct simple optical devices, such as a telescope and periscope. They deconstruct a camera to examine its components and their function. The last lessons of the unit focus on the visual perception of humans and animals, the structure of the human eye, and communication using light.
Anchor Activity: This is a research project that requires students to research and make a presentation on an optical device, focusing on the structure, function, and history of various elements of the device.
Each part of the unit begins with an assessment of students’ current
understanding of the topic and ends with performance-based and written
assessments.
This free lesson from Light will be an introductory lesson on the investigation of
color.
