I can plan and carry out an investigation to observe and record how light interacts with various materials.
Watch the Switchable Glass commercial below and record what you notice and wonder in your STEM journal.
Guiding Questions:
Is it really glass?
Does it involve electricity?
How does the glass change so quickly?
Is there glass that you can’t see through?
What is the difference between materials you can and can’t see through?
Scientists categorize everything in the universe into two categories: matter and energy. Matter is anything “that’s actually a thing.” Any solid, any liquid, any gas. Anything made of atoms. Energy is NOT ‘things.’ Energy includes heat (thermal energy), the energy of motion (kinetic energy), the energy we learned about that travels through ecosystems (chemical energy), electricity, and others. Light, primarily, is a form of energy. Specifically, light is a form of energy that the human eye can see. Interestingly, light is the ONLY thing you can see. When you see something, you don’t actually see that thing, you see the light that reflects off of it and into your eye.
Today, we’re going to start learning about light by seeing how it interacts with matter - what happens to it when it “runs into” different things/matter. There are five possible things that can happen to light when it interacts with matter. Today we’re going to learn the first 3.
With your table group, investigate the materials in your bag and sort them into groups according to how they interact with light.
With your table group, watch the video to learn more about how light interacts with different types of materials. Then, re-sort the materials based on your findings.
Record your findings and a definition of the 3 ways light interacts with materials on page 39 of your Interactive Notebook. With your group mates, continue reading in your notebook to page 42.
Use the slides to learn about tools used to study objects in space. Complete the questions on pages 26-27 of your Science Interactive notebook.