Lesson Planning

Teaching

• Predict and then investigate which colours show up best and least in the dark.
• Investigate the effect of shining a torch on various objects including reflective materials.

Activities

1. Investigate which colours show up best in the dark and which are hard to see.
2. Discover why shiny and reflective materials appear to glitter or shine in torchlight.

Investigation - classifying and identifying
When the low level house lights came on, the witnesses saw some coloured cushions on the sofa but others had gone, some items on the stage were very bright in the torchlight. Investigate which colours show up best in low light and which materials reflect back a torch beam.
Year 3 - Sort and classify different colours and materials as good and bad reflectors of light.
Year 4 - Rank order colours and materials according to their reflective properties.

Vocabulary
Light source, reflector, reflect, predict, investigate, fair test, reflective materials