Students explore the optimum angle for orienting a solar collector relative to the rays of incoming sunlight. They review equinoxes, solstices, and various locational ideas before students investigate using meters, light sources, and...

Students explore properties of tangent lines.  In this properties of tangent lines lesson plan, students discuss the perpendicular relationship between a tangent line on a circle and the circle's radius.  Students use that...

Pupils explore the effects of massive flooding in Pakistan. In this global issues instructional activity, students read an article about  monsoons and flooding in Pakistan. Pupils respond to discussion questions based on the article.

Sixth graders review their results from the previous experiments. After viewing a kaleidoscope, they make their own pattern on paper and describe the role of light. To end the lesson, they examine light being relfected and refracted and...

Students predict the path of a ball bouncing off an object. In this physics lesson, students conduct the rolling ball experiment to test their prediction. They perform several trials for accuracy.

Students determine the effect of the earth's tilt on the amount of incoming solar radiation throughout the year. They simulate the earth's orbit around the sun using a light bulb and a globe to simulate the seasons. Assessment questions...

Students learn the procedure for mixing secondary colors from primary pigments and observe the results of mixing two primary colors.

Did you know some retailers use curved mirrors in their fitting rooms to make customers look thinner? Pupils view themselves in convex and concave mirrors to understand the difference. The resource includes big ideas for multiple age...

In this light and optics worksheet, students match the light and optics vocabulary with their definitions. Students match 21 words to their definitions.

Students study light. For this lesson on light, students discuss how flat and angled mirrors reflect light and draw a picture showing how a mirror reflects light into an eye. 

Seventh graders investigate how to make and set up a scatter plot. In this statistics lesson, 7th graders collect data and plot it. They analyze their data and discuss their results.

[Free Registration/Login Required] In the scenario shown here, the laser cannot shine through the black barrier but can hit all three targets by reflecting off of the floor. Use the red dot to change the angle of the laser generator and...

Focusing on the question, "By how much does light refract when it crosses a boundary?" this physics tutorial will allow students the opportunity to explore these concepts of refraction.

The meaning and cause of refraction--as well as Snell's law of refraction--are discussed. Includes an interactive problem-solving form in which visitors relate angles of refraction to the incident angle and the indices of refraction.

Illustrated examples and interactive practice problems that introduce students to the concept of the critical angle, the angle of incidence that provides an angle of refraction of 90-degrees.

This site from Georgia State University is an indexing page for several other pages on the topic of reflection. Topics are treated in an understandable manner and utilize meaningful graphics.

Use the angle of incidence and the angle of refraction to determine the index of refraction for a material.

This task asks learners to use similarity to solve a pool table problem. Students must use the fact from physics that when an object bounces off of a wall, the angle of incidence equals the angle of reflection. Aligns with G-SRT.B.5.

Students can see light reflected and refracted in this demonstration. They will also discover the total internal reflection of light.

[Free Registration/Login may be required to access all resource tools.] In this module, discover and solve problems involving the index of refraction, and investigate problems involving Snell's Law.

A discussion of Christian Huygens' contribution to wave optics, and particularly to our understanding of the reflection and refraction of light. Excellent diagrams and a geometric proof on why the law of reflection is mathematically...

The law of reflection is discussed and explained, accompanied by an animation depicting this law. Includes a list of links to detailed information about certain types of reflections.

An interesting and engaging activity where students work in groups with a laser pointer and small mirrors. They must use their knowledge of angles of reflection to bounce the laser beam from mirror to mirror until it hits a target at the...

Through an illustrated tutorial and some interactive practice problems, students learn about the law of reflection of light.