Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Light Scavengers

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
In this activity, students examine various materials and investigate how they interact with light. Students use five new vocabulary words (translucent, transparent, opaque, reflection and refraction) to describe how light interacts with...
Interactive
Math Science Nucleus

Math/science Nucleus: Light Magic

For Students Pre-K - 1st
This animation discusses light and the properties of light in a storybook format. The animations cover the colors of the rainbow (ROYGBIV) along with prisms, light waves, reflection, and refraction.
Lesson Plan
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: The Energy of Light

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
In this introduction to light energy, students learn about reflection and refraction as they learn that light travels in wave form. Through hands-on activities, they see how prisms, magnifying glasses and polarized lenses work. They also...
Lesson Plan
Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology

Iris: Determining Shallow Earth Structure

For Students 9th - 10th
Extend students' learning of fundamental physics concepts (reflection, refraction and transmission of energy) through a real-world application.
Handout
Georgia State University

Georgia State University: Hyper Physics: Behavior of Incident Light

For Students 9th - 10th
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.
Handout
Other

Byju's: Physics: Reflection of Waves

For Students 9th - 10th
Explains what happens to a wave when it hits a fixed end or a free end.
Interactive
American Association of Physics Teachers

Com Padre Digital Library: Open Source Physics: Ejs Reflection and Refraction Between Taut Strings Model

For Students 9th - 10th
In this simulation, two strings with different densities are held tautly as a wave pulses along them. Variables can be changed to alter the relative densities of the strings, as well as the type of wave pulse.
Website
Ducksters

Ducksters: Physics for Kids: Telescopes

For Students 1st - 9th
Kids learn about telescopes in the science of physics including lenses, mirrors, refracting, reflecting, the history, and the Hubble Space Telescope.
Website
University of Chicago

Telescopes at Yerkes Observatory / Virtual Tour

For Students 9th - 10th
This site describes the difference between reflective and refractive telescopes and includes a virtual tour of Yerkes Observatory which houses the largest refracting telescope in the world.
Handout
Physics Classroom

The Physics Classroom: Lesson 3: Concave Mirrors

For Students 9th - 10th
Lesson 3 of this tutorial on refraction is on concave mirrors. Content that is covered includes the anatomy of curved mirrors, reflection of light and image formation, ray diagrams, image characteristics for concave mirrors, plus more.
Handout
Boston University

Bu: Optics: Geometric Optics

For Students 9th - 10th
Several short descriptions of demonstrations which illustrate principles of geometric optics (many of which focus upon refraction).
Activity
Optical Society

Optical Society of America: Optics for Kids: Blue Sky Red Sunset

For Students 1st - 5th
An experiment where light is shone through a bottle of water, and then milk added, to see how this affects the path the light takes (with links to articles on reflection and refraction that explain what is happening).
Activity
My Science Site

My Science Site: The Light for Sight [Pdf]

For Teachers 9th - 10th
This resource offers a hands-on activity for science teachers to teach about the eye and it's ability to see images. Also discusses refraction and reflection. This resource is in PDF form; requires Adobe Reader.
Website
Ducksters

Ducksters: Physics for Kids: Wave Behavior

For Students 1st - 9th
Kids learn about the behavior of waves in the science of physics including reflection, refraction, diffraction, polarization, absorption, and interference.
Unit Plan
Learn AP Physics

Learn Ap Physics: Physics B: Waves

For Students 9th - 10th
A site dedicated to help students prepare for the AP Physics B test. This specific site reviews waves including traveling waves, standing waves, resonance, speed of electromagnetic waves, Doppler shift, Doppler effect, interference,...
Whiteboard
ClassFlow

Class Flow: Introduction to Light

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
[Free Registration/Login Required] This flipchart introduces fifth graders to the science of light. Principles such as transparent, translucent, opaque, reflection, and refraction are covered. Concave and convex mirrors and lenses are...
Article
Mocomi & Anibrain Digital Technologies

Mocomi: What Is Scattering of Light?

For Students 2nd - 8th
Do you know why the sky is blue? Article defines scattering and how it works. Explains the difference between the scattering of light and reflection or refraction.
Article
Other

United States Master Swimming: Fiber Aquatics

For Students 9th - 10th
The principle of total internal reflection is discussed in this article. The appearance of objects from inside the water of a swimming pool is compared to the path of light in a fiber optic cable.
Website
Space Telescope Science Institute

Amazing Space: Telescopes From the Ground Up

For Students 9th - 10th
Students can investigate the historical development of six different telescopes. The technical aspects of different telescopes are also presented.
Handout
Georgia State University

Georgia State University: Hyper Physics: Crossed Polarizers

For Students 9th - 10th
At this univeristy physics department site, the polarization of light is explained and illustrated. Methods for analyzing light to determine the degree of polarization are stated and explained with equations.
Handout
Georgia State University

Georgia State University: Hyper Physics: Polarization by Absorption

For Students 9th - 10th
The operation of Polaroid filters on a pair of sunglasses is shown.
Handout
Optical Society

Optical Society of America: Optics for Kids: Lenses and Geometrical Optics

For Students 3rd - 8th
Article explaining what lenses are and how they work. At the end of the article, there are links to several hands-on activities for investigating lenses.
Activity
Exploratorium

Exploratorium: Science Snacks: Physics/light

For Students 9th - 10th
Here is a large collection of simple science class activities for understanding the physics of light.
Lesson Plan
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Waves and Wave Properties

For Teachers 9th - 10th
Students learn about the types of waves and how they change direction, as well as basic wave properties such as wavelength, frequency, amplitude and speed. During the presentation of lecture information on wave characteristics and...

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