Waves, waves, everywhere - part II

The first grade finished their light wave exploration with an activity demonstrating the different types of light coming from the Sun.  The lesson started with a discussion about why we see rainbows and moves into ways that we can break ‘white’ light into the different colors.  The students were able to view sunlight, compact fluorescent light (CFL), and ‘black’ light in a homemade spectrometer and saw the different colors in the rainbow in these light source.

We also discussed light waves that we as humans can not see but that other animals can - snakes can sense infrared waves and bugs can see ultraviolet waves.  To demonstrate these ‘invisible’ waves, we used UV reactive beads.  I pulled out a clear container with white beads that said ‘RED’ on it.  The students are asked, ‘what color are these beads?’.  Most students said ‘red’ because of the label but eventually trusted their own observation that the beads were white.  Each student was able to create a keychain with the beads before we started our science experiment - what would happen if we took these beads outside?’  We listed our hypothesis and then walked to the playground for the big reveal.  They were so excited! When we came back in, one of the students stated “it’s not magic, it’s science!”