Students gain a foundational understanding of light by studying how it interacts with different objects.

GUIDING QUESTIONS
• How is a shadow created and how can it be changed?

LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Students will be able to:
• identify and sort objects as reflective, transparent, or opaque.
• describe how the distance between an object and its light source affects the size of
a shadow.
• recognize the sun as a source of light.

OVERVIEW
The purpose of this lesson is to provide students with a foundational understanding of
light by enabling them to explore how light interacts with different objects and to discover
relationships between light and shadow. Students begin the lesson by discussing how light
travels and observing and sorting objects that are transparent, reflective, and opaque. Then,
students collect and examine data on how changing the distance between an object and a
light source affects the size of a shadow. Finally, students connect their learning to home by
searching for examples of transparent, reflective, and opaque objects around their homes
and by investigating how the appearance of a shadow changes throughout the day

Includes follow-up family activity.

Grades K – 2