The 6th grade physics unit is titled: “Seeing the Light: Can I Believe My Eyes?” It is centered on an anchoring activity that provides a common experience for all the students. In this activity, a message, or parts of it, appear and disappear depending on the color of light used to illuminate the message. An understanding of the target science ideas and inquiry processes is instrumental to explaining the anchoring activity. Students complete several investigations, each time cycling back to the anchoring activity. Each cycle helps them delve deeper into the science content to gain a deeper understanding of how light moves through space, what happens when it meets matter, how our eyes detect light, how colors of light can be perceived to be different than what they really are, and finally that there are types of non-visible light. Throughout the unit a model of light and seeing is developed, applied to explain new phenomena, critiqued, modified, and re-applied.
The learning goals for this unit are:
Light is in constant motion and spreads out as it travels away from a primary or secondary source.
Light from a primary or secondary source must enter the eye in order for the source to be seen.
Light interacts with matter by transmission, absorption, or reflection (including scattering).
Absorption of light can cause changes in matter.
Colors of light can be combined or separated to appear as new colors.
Human eyes can detect only a limited range of light wavelengths.