Assembly Programs: Light Fantastic
A laser beam reflects off of particulate in the air while a variety of fluorescent materials glow underneath an ultraviolet light, demonstrating two ways that humans have been able to produce light.
From fire to lasers, explore the history of light and observe its ability to bend and bounce. Travel along the electromagnetic spectrum, and witness the spectacular properties of ultraviolet, visible, and infrared light while discovering how it is produced and used. Note: We must be able to totally darken the performance area.
“The Light Fantastic” aligns with the following points of the Maryland State Voluntary Curriculum:
Skills and Processes
Grades 4, 5
- Gather and question data from many different forms of scientific investigations which include…observing what things are like or what is happening somewhere…and doing experiments. (A.1)
- Seek better reasons for believing something than "Everybody knows that..." or “I just know” and discount such reasons when given by others. Develop explanations using knowledge possessed and evidence from observations and investigations. Offer reasons for their findings and consider reasons suggested by others. Review different explanations for the same set of observations and make more observations to resolve the differences. (B.1abc)
- Identify factors that must be considered in any technological design- cost, safety, environmental impact, and what happens if the solution fails (D.1c)
Grades 6, 7, 8
- Design, analyze, or carry out simple investigations and formulate appropriate conclusions based on data obtained or provided (A.1)
- Explain how different models can be used to represent the same thing. Choosing a useful model is one of the instances in which intuition and creativity come into play in science, mathematics, and engineering. Recognize that important contributions to the advancement of science, mathematics, and technology have been made by different kinds of people, cultures, at different times. (C.1eg)
Physics
Grade 5
- Provide evidence to show that light travels in a straight line until it is reflected or refracted and observe that a ray changes direction when it crosses the boundary between 2 materials (D.3c)
- Observe and describe that prisms separate white light into its component colors. Pose questions about why objects appear to be different colors (D.4cd)
Grade 6
- Cite evidence from observations and research to support the fact that something can be “seen” when light waves emitted or reflected by it enter the eye (D.3b)