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First Star I See Tonight
Grades 4-7

We experience our first glimpse into the universe by looking into the evening sky. This class examines the nature of light and visual perception. We combine color to make white light, and separate white light into its component colors. Refraction, reflection, lateral inhibition, and the electromagnetic spectrum will be common phrases after this class.

Vocabulary:

Possible Activities:

• List all the possible sources of light.
• Use diagrams to explain the sub-atomic source of all light.
• Combine red, green, blue, and yellow light to see what colors they make.
• Demonstrate how white light is a combination of all the colors of the rainbow, by using prisms.
• Study concepts of wavelength and frequency using a rainbow diagram.
• Use two lenses to make a Galileo telescope, and observe its effects.
• Use lenses to determine what focal length means.
• Calculate the magnifying power of a telescope.

Pre-Visit Activities

• Observe how the moon changes throughout the month.
• Introduce vocabulary.
• Go over Bohr’s atomic model.

Post-Visit Activities

• Make your own spectroscopes and observe a variety of light sources (excluding the sun).
• Research the history of cultures that use a moon-based calendar.

State of California Science Standards met in this class:

Grade 7
Physical Principles in Living Systems (Physical Science)

6. Physical principles underlie biological structures and functions. As a basis for understanding this concept, students know:

a. visible light is a small band within a very broad electromagnetic spectrum.

b. for an object to be seen, light emitted by or scattered from it must enter the eye.

c. light travels in straight lines except when the medium it travels through changes.

d. how simple lenses are used in a magnifying glass, the eye, camera, telescope, and microscope.

e. white light is a mixture of many wavelengths (colors), and that retinal cells react differently with different wavelengths.

f. light interacts with matter by transmission (including refraction), absorption, or scattering (including reflection).

g. the angle of reflection of a light beam is equal to the angle of incidence.

Investigation and Experimentation

7. Scientific progress is made by asking meaningful questions and conducting careful investigations. As a basis for understanding this concept, and to address the content the other three strands, students should develop their own questions and perform investigations. Students will:

a. select and use appropriate tools and technology (including calculators, computers, balances, spring scales, microscopes, and binoculars) to perform tests, collect data, and display data.

d. construct scale models, maps and appropriately labeled diagrams to communicate scientific knowledge (e.g., motion of Earth’s plates and cell structure).