Ready-to-Go Resources: All About Light

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Lesson 1: What Is Light?

Goal: Learn how rainbows happen

Time required: 40 minutes

Materials: What Is Light? (PDF) Student Reproducible 1, pencil or pen, colored pencils or markers, white or light-colored wall, dishpan, water, small mirror, flashlight.

Directions:

  1. Turn off the lights and ask: Is light a type of energy? (Yes. Explain that energy is a power from electricity or other sources that makes machines work and produces heat.) Which part of the body needs light energy to work? (The eye. Explain that we can see objects only when light rays bounce off objects and into our eyes.)

  2. Turn the lights back on. Perform the following experiment with the class.
    1. Place a dishpan on a desk about two feet away from a wall. Fill the pan three-quarters full with water.
    2. Place a mirror inside the pan so that half the mirror is underwater.
    3. Turn off the room lights and shine a flashlight on the part of the mirror that is underwater.
    4. A rainbow should appear. If it does not, slowly change the angle of the mirror.
    5. Slowly change the angle of the flashlight as it shines on the underwater part of the mirror.

  3. Distribute copies of   What Is Light? Student Reproducible 1 and read the directions aloud.

  4. Instruct students to complete the questions on the reproducible.

Answer Key: Data Table observations—answers may vary; 1. The water bent the light, splitting it into its spectrum; 2. The mirror bounced the split light back toward the wall so it could be seen; 3. Rainbows should be labeled in the following order: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet; 4. Spectrums appear elsewhere as rainbows in the sky, in a spray of water from a hose on a hot day, on the surface of soap bubbles, on CDs, etc.

Writing extension: Have students write a descriptive paragraph about a time when they would like to see a rainbow. Descriptions should include how raindrops cause rainbows to appear.

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Student Contest! Teachers, help your students write a letter to a newspaper editor about Thomas Edison's great invention!
To get started, distribute this contest entry form (PDF), contest entry page (PDF), and family contest activity (PDF).

Students Have a Chance to Win:

• $5,000 or $1,250 U.S. savings bond
• Scholastic Inventor's Gift Pack of Books

Teachers Have a Chance to Win:

• $250 GE Science Grant
• $250 Scholastic gift certificate
• One-year home supply of light bulbs
• Science-themed set of library books

Classrooms Have a Chance to Win:

• Class visit from an Olympic athlete
• Class set of collectible GE Olympic Games pins

All winners receive a collectible GE Olympic Games pin and a certificate of participation!

Entries must be postmarked by
October 21, 2005.
Official Rules (PDF)

Download an exciting activity and
fun facts about how GE is helping
to bring the Games to light.
GE and Reveal are trademarks of
General Electric Company.
GE is proud to be a worldwide partner of the 2006 Olympic Winter Games, to be held in Torino, Italy. Download the resources for an exciting activity and fun facts about how GE is helping to bring the Games to light.
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