Curated OER
Sound Box
Students make simple observations and identify relevant variables, such as frequency and diameter. They then discuss the relationship between variables. The task assesses students' abilities to make simple observations and make...
Curated OER
Can You See the Light?
Explore plants and flowers with this lesson. Learners talk about plants, conduct an experiment with suflowers, and track a plants growth. This is a motivating way to present this concept.
American Association for the Advancement of Science
Sensing the Invisible: The Herschel Experiment
Learners of light will construct a contraption in which light is passed through a prism and shone into a box. The temperatures at different points along the path and outside of the path of light. The intent is to imitate William...
Wild BC
Climate Change Bingo
Here is a 20-box bingo card to use when exploring ways that humans impact the environment. Various environmentally aware activities are listed in the boxes, and learners circulate the room to find someone who practices the different...
California Academy of Science
Greening Your Middle School
Middle schoolers redesign their school to make it more energy efficient, and create a model of their design. Learners get together in groups of 5, and they take on the task of making their school more energy efficient. To do this, they...
Curated OER
Looking Blue
Students participate in a research project that is exclusively using the internet. The author states that traditional labs are hard to conduct for a light lab. This one uses the internet with the intention that students can manipulate...
California Academy of Science
Plants: Hanging Tough
Learning about the rainforest can be more fun than you think. The class discusses vocabulary-in-context as they cut cardboard boxes, destined to become part of a rainforest model. Small groups of children color, cut, and construct...
Exploratorium
Far Out Corners
Construct a three-dimensional optical illusion when your class is exploring vision and how the eye and brain work together. Three concave corners are mounted inside of a black box, but as a light is shined upon them, they appear to be...
US Department of Energy
Electric Avenue: Parallel and Series Circuits
Can you infer the wiring diagram of a series of lights based on their behavior alone? Scholars work with multiple boxes of four lights. They must flip the switch and decide how the lights are wired. By applying their knowledge of...
Curated OER
African Savanna Habitat Diorama Craft
Set the stage for a unit or lesson on the African savanna by creating a cute habitat diorama. Cheetahs, lions, zebras, and elephants are all present in a shoe-box-sized craft that requires your learners to color, cut, and paste. These...
LABScI
Photosynthesis: How Do Plants Get Energy?
Examine the mechanism of photosynthesis through different light scenarios. Pupils vary the amount and type of light exposure on plant leaves in the fifth lesson plan in a 12-part series. Through observation, they determine the rate of...
It's About Time
Curved Mirrors
Discover concave and convex mirrors using a laser light. Scholars experiment with real and virtual images before reading a handout and completing homework questions. Included extensions greatly benefit learners, so take advantage of the...
University of Colorado
Rings and Things
Galileo first observed Saturn's rings in 1610. Through the use of a flashlight and baby powder, classes see how they can observe the rings of the outer planets from far away. Another demonstration shows how these rings, made of ice and...
Curated OER
Energy Efficiency Ambassadors
Learners research energy conservation devices. They also create their own light efficiency project and presents their findings on science fair night.
Curated OER
Spherical Mirrors
Young scholars view images in a spherical mirror and interpret the path of light. In this physics lesson, students view a large spherical mirror demonstrated by the instructor. They use shiny serving spoons to investigate the path of...
Curated OER
No Lights Tonight
Students explore use of batteries and electrical power on farms in the 1930s.
Curated OER
Light And Shadows
Fourth graders explore the properties of shadows. In pairs they trace each other's shadows in chalk and re-draw their shadow outlines every three hours, design their own shadow investigation, and complete various worksheets related to...
Curated OER
The Nature of Light
In this science worksheet, students answer questions that are related to the concept of color and they discover what color shirts are being worn by reading the clues.
Curated OER
Shedding Light on Watersheds
High schoolers discuss what a watershed is, complete online activities showing them how to take care of a watershed, and create a model of a watershed that they experiment with to see what happens when it is disrupted by civilization.
Curated OER
Magic Mirror Box
Students observe a plywood box with mirrors. In this mirror and light lesson plan, students make informal, individual investigations with a plywood box that has been fitted with mirror squares. They use observation skills and investigate...
Curated OER
The Amazing Mathematical Race: Boxing the Rare Element
Students enter a race against time to determine the maximum sized box that can be formed from a standard sheet of copy paper. The boxes are to be used to contain a valuable and rare element which is light as cotton and corrosive to all...
Curated OER
Spherical Mirrors
Some formatting issues will need repair (a few overlapping text boxes and pictures), but overall this is a comprehensive presentation on how light reflects off of spherical mirrors. Both convex and concave mirrors are explained,...
CPO Science
Physics Skill and Practice Worksheets
Stop wasting energy searching for physics resources, this comprehensive collection of worksheets has you covered. Starting with introductions to the scientific method, dimensional analysis, and graphing data, these skills practice...
Curated OER
Making a Pinhole Camera
Students are introduced to the basic straight line pattern of travel that light takes. A cereal box and wax paper provide the pinhole camera that captures the light's inverted image. Shifting this pattern provides additional challenges.