Light Investigations

Happy Monday! I hope everyone had a wonderful fall weekend. I couldn't believe how chilly it was in Ohio- it makes me so excited for fall! This weekend was so busy that I didn't get a chance to write about the fun light investigations that my class did on Friday. My kiddos had an absolute blast and learned so much!

The light investigations are five different investigations that the kids rotate through. Almost all of them involve the use of flashlights and we turn out the lights in the classroom. I even blocked the windows by pulling my class curtains shut. It felt like we were in a cave!

At the first investigation, students learn how shadows are made by standing in front of our overhead projector (yes, my classroom is still old school and we have one of these!). I tell them that this is the one time they can stand in front of the overhead and make shadow puppets, etc. They love it and learn that shadows are made when light gets blocked by an object.

At the second investigation, students use flashlights to shine light onto many different objects. They have to sort them into three different groups- light gets absorbed (opaque), light goes through (translucent), and light bounces off (reflects). Some of the objects I put at this investigation include a block of wood, a clear cup, a spoon, a magnifying glass, a mirror, clear containers, and a tin container.

The third investigation has the students observing a pencil in a cup of water. The pencil looks broken or crooked because when light waves travel through water, they bend and cause objects to look different. The kids learn that this is called an optical illusion.

At the fourth investigation, students learn that dark colored objects get hotter than light colored objects. They investigate what happens when they hold a black and white piece of paper over a lamp. The black paper gets hotter because it absorbs more light.

At the last investigation, students explore what happens when you shine light through a magnifying glass. When they do this, they can see that the light waves bend. They can also see a rainbow so we talk about how light is made up of all the colors of the rainbow.

I give the students five minutes to explore at each center and then they have five minutes to write one fact that they learned about light from the investigation. I love teaching this unit about light because it allows the kids to explore and be "scientists"! If you'd like to learn more about these light investigations, you can check out my product by clicking on the image below.

Wishing you a wonderful week!

 

What Do Plants Need? Investigation

My students are crazy about science investigations this year! This week, we started a plant investigation called "What Do Plants Need?" It is a two week long investigation that allows them to observe changes in plants that are getting different things. Basically, you use 6 plants (I try to pick flowers that I know will easily die!) and plant them in pots or cups. One flower gets no sunlight, one gets no soil, one gets no water, one gets no space, one gets no air, and the last plant gets everything. My students LOVE planning the experiment and coming up with ideas for what we can do to the plants. (I actually feel kind of guilty knowing that we are killing them... but it's all about the learning, right?!) Here are some pics of the plants and how we planned the investigation:

 
Plant #1 (No light): We decided to put the plant in the cabinet behind my desk. I pushed the plant about as far back as it could go and keep the doors closed (as much as possible!)

Plant #2 (No soil): The kids thought that I should not only remove all of the soil from the roots but also rinse off the roots to get every speck off. I did just that... and boy, is this plant dying already!

Plant #3 (No water): This one was simple- don't water the plant. I asked them how we could remember not to water this one and one of my students suggested making a sign to remind our "plant caretaker" not to water it at the end of the day. (Yes, the sign says "member"!)

Plant #4 (No space): This was kind of a difficult one for them to brainstorm, but they ended up deciding to put the plant in a small dixie cup instead of one of the blue SOLO cups. Later, we also added some rocks and gravel to the top so the plant doesn't have any space to grow.

Plant #5 (No air): This poor plant gets no air at all. My students thought that we could zip it up in a Ziploc baggie and only unzip it to water the plant at the end of the day. This one is fading fast too!

Plant #6 (Gets everything): This plant gets everything that it needs to survive, so we simply set it in the window and plan to give it everything.

We planned the investigation on Monday and then observed the plants today (at the end of Week One). I put one plant at each table and allowed the kids to look closely at it, feel the soil, etc. They recorded their observations and then rotated to the next table. They did this for all 6 plants. Next Friday will be the last day of the investigation. We will observe them for the last time and then write about our conclusions and what we learned. Hopefully the plants cooperate =) The kids are so excited about this investigation!