Names: Sarah Graves and Andrew Pietryga

Names: Sarah Graves and Andrew Pietryga

GLCE: Plan and conduct investigations to determine the effect of placing objects made with different materials in the path of a beam of light. [Clarification Statement: Examples of materials could include those that are transparent (such as clear plastic), translucent (such as wax paper), opaque (such as cardboard), and reflective (such as a mirror).] [Assessment Boundary: Assessment does not include the speed of light.]

Lesson Title: Discovering Various Materials with Flashlights!

Lesson Overview:

After the completion of the lesson, students will be able to:

·  Define transparent, translucent, opaque, and reflective.

·  Recognize transparent, translucent, opaque, and reflective materials.

·  Categorize various objects as transparent, translucent, opaque, or reflective.

·  Create a chart with pictures.

List of Materials:

·  Flashlights

·  Shapes cut from cardboard (square, triangle, star, and circle)

·  Book

·  Transparent materials- 4 glass jars, 4 pieces of plastic wrap, and 4 bags of water.

·  Translucent materials- 4 pieces of wax paper, 4 pieces of white paper, and 4 pieces of cloth.

·  Opaque materials- 4 folders, 4 pieces of cardboard and 4 books.

·  Reflective materials- 4 pieces of aluminum foil, and 4 mirrors.

PHASE ONE: Engage

Show the students the YouTube clip on transparent, translucent, opaque, and reflective materials. Prompt the students for the lesson by asking questions regarding the various materials shown in the clip. What do you think a reflective material is? Why do you think the lamp shade was translucent? Etc.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=roFDDOvzOcc

PHASE TWO: Explore

This exploration will first start with a teacher demonstration. First choose one student to be in charge of the flashlight, as the “Official Flashlight Holder” and your assistant. Tell them to not turn on the flashlight until you give the signal. Take a piece of white paper and clip behind it one of the cardboard cut-out shapes. Ask the class if they are able to see what shape is behind the paper. Next, have your assistant turn on the flashlight. Ask again if they are able to see the object behind the paper. Have the students guess what cardboard shape is behind the paper. After, ask the students to think about why they were able to identify the shape after the light was turned on. Discuss with them if they think the same experiment would work by putting the shape behind a book instead of a piece of paper. Try it to see.

Next, divide the students into 4 groups. Give each group a flashlight. Have each of them take a turn shinning the flashlight underneath their fingertips, then move the light down toward their palm. Ask which part of their hand they think is translucent (fingertips) and which part of their hand is opaque (palm). After, pass out the various materials for each group to explore. Each student will also receive a chart (attached) that they must fill out individually, but can work with their group members to explore the concepts. The students will experiment with the objects presented using a flashlight to determine which materials are transparent, translucent, opaque, and reflective. Have the students organize the materials into the 4 different categories and then draw a picture of each object in the correct column in their chart.

PHASE THREE: Explain

Once everyone has completed their chart we will come together as a class and create a group chart together on the board to explore what the students have discovered and how they have categorized the various materials. Afterwards we will go over the definition for transparent, translucent, opaque, and reflective.

PHASE FOUR: Elaborate

For the elaborate each student will be responsible to go home and find 4 different items around their house, which were not used in the activity during class. One item needs to be translucent, one needs to be transparent, one needs to be opaque, and the last one needs to be reflective. If possible the students need to physically bring in the materials that they find, and if this is not a possibility they will need to draw a picture of their specific object. The next day the students will get into groups and share the materials they have explored. We will make a class list of the different materials they each brought in, categorizing them as we go along.

PHASE FIVE: Evaluate

The students will be evaluated throughout the entire lesson. During the explain section we will evaluate the students based on if they have categorized the various materials correctly while we create the class chart on the board. We will also be individually assessing the students based off of the elaborate section based off of the materials they bring in and if they have correctly found 1 of each type of material and were able to categorize them correctly.