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In this lesson students will investigate light (science standard for third grade) through exploration of light stations. Students will design a product that will allow for light to reflect, refract, and be absorbed in an engineering design challenge titled “Magic Box” that breaks the rule of light traveling in a straight path. Students will design a box that allows for the light to enter the box, will travel through the box and out an exit.

Type: Lesson Plan

Hang ten, surfers! Get ready for the Super Surfers surfing competition! In this cool lesson, the students will demonstrate an understanding of how light travels and its ability to reflect, refract, and be absorbed. They will also work collaboratively to express their opinions, while considering those of their peers.

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will learn about some of the behaviors of light, specifically refraction, through a video, a kinesthetic activity and summarizing informational text. Students will be able explain what causes a shadow by understanding the way light travels as well as explain refraction of light. This lesson can be completed in two 40 minute time periods or over two days.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students are fascinated with light. In this lesson plan, students investigate some of the properties of how light is propagated, and using observations from simple experiments, test their predictions about the paths that light takes with different materials.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson plan covers the concept that energy from the sun reaches Earth in the form of heat and light. It incorporates concepts from Earth and Physical Science.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this activity, students are challenged to put a mirror on the wall, cover it, and find locations where they think they can see each other in the mirror. Through the activity, students find that light reflects at an equal angle as it arrives. Students then can explore a Java applet that demonstrates that the angle at which light is reflected is equal to the angle at which it arrives.

Type: Teaching Idea

In this activity, a black bottle, white bottle, and balloons are used to demonstrate the effect that color has on the amount of solar thermal energy absorbed (potentially inflating the balloon). With this understanding, students will color a picture (included) in colors that will absorb less and/or more solar energy.

Type: Teaching Idea

In this unit, students first explore the different forms of energy using their senses. In the next two lessons, emphasis is placed on light energy and how light interacts with other objects.

Type: Unit/Lesson Sequence

Star Light, Star Bright explores the nature of the electromagnetic spectrum. In a series of four mini-lessons, the different properties of waves and the relationship that exists between energy, wavelength, and frequency will be covered. Activities are "Catch the Waves", "Making Waves", "Heating Up", and "Stellar Encounters." Be sure to view the brain teasers and light facts on each page.

Type: Virtual Manipulative