Recently, we have been very busy exploring ‘Light’. We began our exploration by investigating how various materials allow light to pass through in different ways. This helped us understand the concepts of transparent, translucent, and opaque objects. This led to a better understanding of how shadows are formed as only opaque objects create clear shadows. Outdoors, we enjoyed tracing around our shadows at different times of the day and observing how the position of the sun affects the length and direction of shadows. We also conducted investigations to prove that light travels in straight lines. Next, we explored reflection using different types of mirrors, including concave, and convex mirrors. We also used mirrors to create a periscope which allowed us to see things which were otherwise out of sight. The concept of refraction came alive as we placed a spoon into a glass of water to see how light bends when it passes through different materials. We were really impressed with our very own water magnifier which helped to magnify text to make it easier to read. Our exploration of light wouldn’t be complete without a rainbow, and using prisms we were able to view the spectrum of colours hidden within white light. We also used shiny objects and light to create our own rainbow. We thoroughly enjoyed all our explorations on light which not only helped us to build our scientific knowledge, but also essential skills in observing, predicting, experimenting, and recording. Of course, we also enjoyed integrating our light explorations with visual arts by drawing pictures using a magic light canvas.
