Exploring Light!

This week, Tom Keenan came in for a second visit to teach us more about light energy! He demonstrated that a beam of light, though it moves in a straight path, is made up of transverse light waves - so they move in a straight line even though their waves move up and down as they travel. These are tough concepts for even Mr. Keenan's high school students; our first and second graders are just gaining some exposure into this world of light energy.

House Tables got to explore with different materials using a flashlight to see which materials allowed all light to pass through (transparent), some light to pass through (translucent), no light to pass through (opaque), and which reflected the light back. All the kids were engaged in this investigation and were able to appropriately sort the materials. Some students are even starting to use some of this vocabulary, though it is not an expectation that they will own this academic language.

We are looking forward to one last visit from Mr. Keenan next week to explore how light is the source of the colors we see. It's been great to hear the cries of delight from the kids when we say it's time for science!