Science Week: Light

This week we have been doing science rotations among the senior classes learning about different elements of the physical world. 

In Room 10 we were learning about floating and sinking with Mrs Tofa
In Room 9 we were learning about electricity with Mr Nath
In Room 8 we were learning about sound with Mrs Moopanar 
and in Room 7 Mrs Parker was teaching about light. 

First we learned some of the key vocabulary we would need to know to be able to explore the experiments that were set up around the class. 

a)  Focus

To bring light rays to a meeting point

 

b)  Lens

A piece of plastic or glass that changes the direction of light rays

 

c)  Shadow

A dark patch caused by little or no light falling on a surface

 

d)  Prism

A piece of shaped glass or plastic that splits light rays into different groups 

 

e)  Reflect

To cause light rays to bounce off a surface 

 

f)  Refract

To bend or change the direction of light rays. 

We discussed some common myths about light, for example, even though the moon glows bright, it does not actually make light. The light we see on the moon is actually light from the sun being reflected off the moon. 

Next we explored the experiments about colour & light rays, and refractions of light through lens and prisms. 

Spinning rainbow coloured wheels really fast to make the colour turn white. 

The convex lens made things look closer,
and blurry and upsidedown

But the concave lens zoomed out
and made things look further away 

Shining a green, red and blue torch onto the white paper, the light didn't get darker like we predicted.
Instead it went brighter and whiter... 

Shining light into a prism makes the light refract and split into different rays. 

We were really surprised by the way the light changed and reacted during our experiments. We learned that the light that comes from the sun and light bulbs is known as ‘white light’ but white light is actually made up of all of the colours of the rainbow!

Red

Orange

Yellow

Green

Blue

Indigo and ,

Violet

When it rains the light hits the raindrops and refracts, splitting into its original colours. This is why we see a rainbow when the sun shines.

When we spin this coloured wheel quick enough it colours merge and are reflected back at us as white.