Unit 1: Light

Instructional Resources

OAS-S: 1.PS4.2, 1.PS4.3

Bundled Standards Analysis: Light

Driving Question

• Why can’t we see in the dark?

Essential Questions

• How does light affect what we see? 

• What happens when there is no light?

• How do different materials interact with light? 

Examples of Student-Developed Initial Questions

• How are shadows made?

• Why can’t I see through my door, but I can through a window?

• How can I change the direction of the shadow?

• How can I make shadows longer or shorter? 

Prior Knowledge

Each dimension in the Oklahoma Academic Standards for Science grows in complexity and sophistication across the grades. To learn more about the prior knowledge and skills students have developed in previous grades associated with the standards in this bundle, check out the links below.

Science and Engineering Practices 

Disciplinary Core Ideas 

Crosscutting Concepts 

Science and engineering practices (SEP) in Grade 1 build on prior experiences. This bundle of standards engages students with the following SEPs: 

• Planning and Carrying Out Investigations
• Constructing Explanations

Disciplinary core ideas (DCI) in Grade 1 build on prior experiences. This bundle of standards explores the following areas:

• Electromagnetic Radiation
  

Crosscutting concepts (CCC) in Grade 1 build on prior experiences. This bundle of standards leverages the following ways of thinking about science ideas: 

• Cause and Effect
  

Launch Task: Phenomena Ideas

Phenomena are observable events that occur in the universe and that we can use our science knowledge to explain or predict. Engineering involves designing solutions to problems that arise from phenomena and using explanations of phenomena to design solutions. Instructional sequences are more coherent when students investigate phenomena or design problems by engaging in science and engineering practices. Read this STEM Teaching Tool Brief #28 to learn more about the characteristics of a good phenomenon or design problem for anchoring student learning.

Each phenomenon below includes teacher information resources (e.g., information about the phenomenon, data resources, videos, simulations, etc.). Due to the length or accessibility of the content, teachers should screen the resources and pull sections, photos, quotes, and data that are appropriate for Grade 1students to ask questions, investigate, analyze, describe, evaluate, etc. 

Phenomenon: In a very dark room, I cannot see an object in front of me.

Objects can be seen if light is available to illuminate them or if they give off their own light (e.g., candles, the Sun). Educators can ask students if they’ve ever been in a room that’s completely dark (e.g., bedroom at night), then ask students to describe how objects in that room looked (e.g., was it easy/hard to see things?). Educators could also darken classroom windows to provide this experience, use simulations such as the “Night Light Game from PBS” or “Light up the Cave from the Smithsonian”, or create mystery illumination boxes. Teachers could also use small cardboard boxes to build mystery illumination boxes (page 7). Students can use their observations to describe how they can only see objects when there is light.

Phenomenon: Some objects let light through and some do not, causing shadows to form.

Looking at images of different objects placed in the path of a beam of light (e.g., this image of clear glasses), students may notice differences between the objects and their shadows. Using classroom windows and/or flashlights, students can explore how light interacts with different types of material. This can include transparent (e.g., clear plastic), translucent (e.g., wax paper), opaque (e.g., cardboard), and reflective (e.g., mirrors) materials. Through their investigations, students can determine the best types of materials that could be used to block light (e.g., to keep playground equipment cooler in the hot summer, or to create a shadow puppet show) or which materials can redirect light (e.g., mirrors can redirect light beams).

Engagement Strategies 

• Educators can leverage the Student Actions and Teacher Actions found in the Light bundled standards analysis for specific ways of engaging students with these science ideas.

• This example of an elementary science cycle of learning can support educators in developing coherent sequences of learning.
  

• Students can use an I Notice, I Wonder chart to record observations and share their noticings and wonderings. More strategies that support students with figuring out science ideas can be found within the Science Engagement Strategies section of the Framework. 

What It Looks Like in the Classroom

In science and engineering, evidence-based effective instruction focuses on students engaging in science and engineering investigations and design to explain phenomena or develop solutions to a problem. This section reflects a science cycle of learning that supports implementing the identified standards within this unit.

"What It Looks Like in the Classroom" is broken into Narrative Parts, written around the different Essential Questions listed at the top. Each Narrative Part includes examples for how to integrate the science and engineering practices, disciplinary core ideas, and crosscutting concepts for each standard, and includes examples of evidence teachers can gather from students that provides information about what they do and do not understand.

Narrative Part 1 of 2

Essential Question: How does light affect what we see? What happens when there is no light?

OAS-S: 

 3-Dimensional Narrative

Evidence of Understanding 

Provide students with opportunities to investigate a phenomenon and organize data

Objects can be seen because light reflects from them. Light travels in a straight line unless it is absorbed, blocked, refracted or reflected by different materials. Educators can present students with this phenomenon to begin gathering evidence through observations of patterns of light. Students can collaborate in small groups to conduct investigations to collect information to show that light must be present for objects to be seen (e.g., illumination from an external light source or an object giving off its own light).

Students can use the analyze graphic organizer, graphs, charts, tables, or drawings to collect and organize the information collected from the investigation. 

• Observations include that object can only be seen when illuminated. 

Provide opportunities for guided and independent practice. Help students reinforce or refine their understanding of the phenomena with accurate science ideas. 

Students can use the information collected previously to use as evidence to make predictions about patterns of how light interacts with materials. Students can also determine what causes these patterns to occur. 

• Predictions are made about how objects affect light when put in its path based on evidence collected through observations of the phenomenon. 

Provide students opportunities to apply new knowledge

Educators can present students with opportunities to observe objects with and without light to determine when objects can and cannot be seen and what causes this to happen. Students can use information from their observations of light to discover that objects can only be seen if light is available to illuminate them, or if they give off their own light (e.g., light bulb, glow stick). Students can observe that this occurs in a variety of situations so they can identify it as a pattern 

• Statements accurately show the cause and effect relationships between the presence of light and the ability to see objects. 

Narrative Part 2 of 2

Essential Question: How do different materials interact with light? 

OAS-S: 

3-Dimensional Narrative

Evidence of Understanding

Provide students with opportunities to investigate a phenomenon and organize data

Educators can provide students with the opportunity to investigate how different types of material cause different reactions when related to light. 

Through investigations students can also see that some materials allow light to pass through them, transparent (e.g., clear glass, clear plastic), others allow only some light to pass through, translucent (e.g., wax paper, clouded plastic), and others block light completely, opaque (e.g., cardboard, wood). Some materials can be used to redirect or reflect a light beam (e.g. mirror, aluminum foil). This, too, is a pattern students can use to help them describe the effect of light on different types of materials. 

Students can record the results of the investigation in graphs, tables, and/or models. 

• Statements accurately show the connection of the type of object, transparent, translucent, and/or opaque, and how that affects the beam of light. 

• Claims use evidence collected from investigations to determine the effect of the types of object, transparent, translucent, and/or opaque, have on a beam of light.

Provide students opportunities to share their observations, any data collected, and what they think may be causing the phenomenon they observed.

Educators can give students the opportunity to share their observations in groups or partners. They can share any of the data that was previously collected. Through these conversations students can develop explanations for what causes these patterns to exist. 

• Statements accurately describe the relationship between the type of material and how it affects a beam of light. 

Provide opportunities for guided and independent practice.

Educators can provide students with the opportunity to evaluate their own explanations as well as other students’ explanations for the causes and effects of the phenomenon. Students can participate in a gallery walk to share explanations. Students stand by their explanation while “gallery walkers” verbally tell the student one or two ways their explanation is helpful or accurate. Students can use feedback to make adjustments to their explanations. 

• Statements accurately describe the relationship between the type of material and how it affects a beam of light.