Light & Color

Using pictures cut from magazines, make a book which shows examples of transparent, translucent and opaque objects. Write three simple sentences explaining three types of objects.

Before science understood how light works, people would try to explain things like rainbows as living things or magic. Write a make-believe story of your own explaining refraction, x-rays or some other aspect of light in a way that is not really science.

Using detailed science vocabulary, write a report explaining how we see color.

If red is the longest color and purple is the shortest, create several addition or subtraction problems using colors in place of numbers. Red = 7, orange = 6, yellow = 5, etc.

Calculate the time it takes light to get from the sun to each of the planets of our solar system. Create a chart.

Using the measures for each wavelength of visible light, work with a team to determine a relative scale that could be used to draw each wavelength. Create a poster to represent the wavelengths for each of the colors of a rainbow.

Some materials allow light to pass through them, others allow only some light through, and others block all the light, creating a dark shadow on any surface beyond them, where the light cannot reach. Mirrors can be used to redirect a light beam. Examples of materials could include those that are transparent (such as clear plastic), translucent (such as wax paper), opaque (such as cardboard), and reflective (such as a mirror.)

All objects can be seen if light is available to illuminate them or if they give off their own light. Examples of observations could include those made in a completely dark room, a pinhole box, and a video of a cave explorer with a flashlight.

People use a variety of devices to communicate (send and receive information) over long distances. Examples of devices could include a light source to send signals.

All organisms have external parts. Different animals use their body parts in different ways to see; hear; grasp objects; protect themselves; move from place to place; and seek, find, and take in food, water, and air. Animals have body parts that capture and convey different kinds of information needed for growth and survival. Animals respond to these inputs with behaviors that help them survive.

Plants depend on water and light to grow.

Energy is present whenever there are moving objects, sound, light, or heat. When objects collide, energy can be transferred from one object to another, thereby changing their motion. Light transfers energy from place to place.

Examples of devices could include electric circuits that convert electrical energy into light or a solar heater that converts light into heat. Devices should be limited to those that use stored energy to produce light. Possible solutions to a problem are limited by available materials and resources (constraints.) The success of a design solution is determined considering the features of a solution (criteria.) Different proposals for solutions can be compared on the basis of how well each one meets the specified criteria for success.

Waves are regular patterns of motion. Waves of the same type can differ in amplitude (height of the wave) and wavelength (spacing between wave peaks.) Examples of models could include diagrams, analogies, and physical models to illustrate wavelength and amplitude of waves.

An object can be seen when light reflected from its surface enters the eyes.

Different sense receptors are specialized for particular kinds of information, which may be then processed by the animal’s brain.

Waves transfer energy. Emphasis is on describing waves with both qualitative and quantitative thinking.

When light shines on an object, it is reflected, absorbed, or transmitted through the object, depending on the object’s material and the frequency (color) of the light. The path that light travels can be traced as straight lines, except at surfaces between different transparent materials (e.g., air and water, air and glass) where the light path bends. A wave model of light is useful for explaining brightness, color, and the frequency-dependent bending of light at a surface between media. However, because light can travel through space, it cannot be a matter wave, like sound or water waves.

Digitized signals, sent as wave pulses, are a reliable way to encode and transmit information. Emphasis is on a basic understanding that waves can be used for communication purposes. Examples could include using fiber optic cable to transmit light pulses.

Plants use energy from light to make sugars (food) from carbon dioxide and water through the process of photosynthesis, which also releases oxygen.