Sky Patterns
What Do You See in the Sky?
Lesson Phenomena: It is light during the day and dark at night.
Disciplinary Core Idea: Students understand it is light during the day and dark at night. Using this knowledge, students show what they know by drawing what they see in the day and the night skies and noting the patterns of the motion of the sun, moon, and stars. (ESS1.A)
Cross Cutting Concept: Investigating how some things stay the same while other things change, students make lists of space objects you can see in the sky during the day and at night.
Science and Engineering Practice: Based on their observations used to answer scientific questions, students analyze photographs of the sky and sort through them.
How Long Is the Sun in the Sky?
Lesson Phenomena: Phenomenon: When I wake up in the summer, it's light outside. But in the winter, it's dark outside.
Students will:
- Identify the changing seasons as a pattern.
- Name a season then order the seasons that follow it.
- Collect data about the number of daylight hours for each season and use data to make a bar graph.
- Use data to make a bar graph about daylight hours in each season then use data to make a bar graph.
- Compare the number of hours of daylight in different seasons.
Where Is the Sun in the Sky?
Lesson Phenomena: The sun is not always in the same place in sky.
Disciplinary Core Idea: Students observe the sun is not always in the same place in sky. Acting as engineers, students ask questions, make observations, and gather information to design a playhouse with windows that let the sun shine inside all day long. (ESS1.A) (ETS1.A)
Cross Cutting Concept: Understanding observed patterns, students show where the sun is in the sky at different times of the day.
Science and Engineering Practice: Students develop a model of a playhouse with windows that allow sun in and test it.
What Do You See in the Sky?
Lesson Phenomena: It is light during the day and dark at night.
Disciplinary Core Idea: Students understand it is light during the day and dark at night. Using this knowledge, students show what they know by drawing what they see in the day and the night skies and noting the patterns of the motion of the sun, moon, and stars. (ESS1.A)
Cross Cutting Concept: Investigating how some things stay the same while other things change, students make lists of space objects you can see in the sky during the day and at night.
Science and Engineering Practice: Based on their observations used to answer scientific questions, students analyze photographs of the sky and sort through them.
Light and Sound
How is sound made?
- Sounds are waves.
- High-pitched sounds have a short wavelength. This means that the distance between one high-pressure area and the next is short. Low-pitched sounds have a long wavelength, meaning there is a longer distance between one high-pressure area and the next.
- Wavelength is closely related to frequency, which describes how often a high-pressure area reaches a certain point (e.g., your eardrum). High-pitched sounds have a high frequency, and low-pitched sounds have a low frequency.
2. Making Sound: Vibrating objects make sounds. Objects can vibrate in different ways, and it makes the sounds that they produce different from one another.
- When an object vibrates, it moves back and forth, pushing the air around it back and forth. When the vibrating object moves outward, it compresses the air, making a high-pressure area. When the object moves inward, it creates an empty space that the air rushes into, making a low-pressure area.
- How quickly the object vibrates determines the wavelength and the frequency of the sound waves.
- How far the object moves back and forth as it vibrates determines the amplitude of the sound waves.
Read how shadows are made and then scroll down to see our shadow puppet shows!
How Are Shadows Made?
Lesson Phenomena: Shadows can change positions during the day.
Disciplinary Core Idea: Students note how shadows can change positions during the day and discover that some materials block all the light and create a dark shadow on any surface beyond them. Working with shadows, students perform a puppet show. (PS4.B)Cross Cutting Concept: Students use simple tests to support ideas about causes to discover that one object can make different shadows that may be big or small, long or short. Students then plan a shadow puppet show.
Science and Engineering Practice: Students plan and conduct investigations to understand that shadows form when an object blocks light, the location of the flashlight changed the shadow, and that they could predict where a shadow would be based on where the light was coming from.
The Hungry Alligator
This shadow puppet show was written and performed by Shae, Olivia and Antonio N.The alligator is hungry. He wants a frog for dinner.
The alligator is looking for a frog in the swam.
He finally got his frog and he was not hungry anymore.
The Hungry Alligator (1).mp4The Dog Wants His Bone.mp4The Dog Wants a Bone
This shadow puppet show was written and performed by Josh, Molly, Emily and Antonio T.A dong wants his bone.
The dog looks for the bone. He cannot find it because he forgot where he put it. He looked for the bone in the backyard and the front yard.
He found it by the front yard, by the window.
The Cat Who Lost Her Mouse Toy
This shadow puppet show was written and performed by Jeannie, Aiden, Heidi and AndrewThere is a cat who lost her mouse toy.
The cat looks under the couch. She hears a noise.
She found her mouse under the couch.
The Cat Who Lost Her Mouse Toy.mp4The Hungry Snake.mp4The Hungry Snake
This shadow puppet show was written and performed by Kevin, Ryan, Dejana and AngieA snake was hungry because he didn't eat dinner.
It is looking for a rat in the forest.
And then he found it, by a tree in the forest.
The Lost Llama
This shadow puppet show was written and performed by Hannah, Rachel, Nathan and HenryThere was a llama. His name was Max. He was looking for his mom.
He looked under carrots. He eats them to see if his mom was there.
She was there! He is happy!
The lost Llama.mp4
How Does Light Travel?
Disciplinary Core Idea: Seeing that it gets darker when the drapes are drawn or the classroom blinds are closed, students discover that some materials allow light to pass through them while other materials do not.
Cross Cutting Concept: Using simple tests to gather evidence, students show what light will do when it hits different objects as they examine what happens when light shines on a mirror.
Science and Engineering Practice: Students plan and carry out investigations to illustrate how light travels by placing different materials in the path of a beam of light.
How Does Light Help You See?
Disciplinary Core Idea: After observing that a flashlight can be used to see objects in a dark place, students watch videos of dark places to see how objects can be seen if light is available to illuminate them.
Cross Cutting Concept: Students assess the cause-and- effect relationship between light and seeing. Students write a story about visiting a dark place.
Science and Engineering Practice: Students play a game in which they make observations to try to identify an object they can only see part of.
Student Investigation: Students made pictures with pencil on black paper then used their flashlights to try and see each other's drawings. They made observations about how well they could see the pictures and if they could see better if they moved the flashlight closer or farther from the picture.
