Teachers of second graders should consider using the grade 2-4 version of this Thread. It engages students in manipulating objects with a focus in mind as well as exercising balance and movement skills which are good for this age group. This roots our experiences by relating them to ourselves, which is fitting for this age group. This Thread invites Kindergartners through second graders to continue to think about light and shadow while using their bodies to make observations. In other words, trying to predict where to place an object toĬast a shadow at a specific location: essentially trying to locate the But experiencing the connection of these fundamentals in aĭifferent arrangement is good for rooting our experiences moreįirmly. That makes sense in one order: light hits an object and castsĪ shadow. It is only when youĬhange the orientation of the light source that the shadowĬhanges. Shadow of the same length behind the object. If the object is placed anywhere along that line, it will produce a The key to understanding shadows is to realize that the light sourceĪnd object must be lined up in order to make a shadow appear. Thus, the lower the light source is aimed at the object, the more the object blocks the lines, or rays, of light. The higher the light, the less light lines get blocked by the object and hence the less shadow. Imagine straight lines coming down from the light and hitting the object. This is because as the light source moves down, the shadow is being created by the small area of the object blocking the light. Twist the light source a little down from the top, and a shadow appears behind the object, but is very short. Would there be a shadow? No, not one that would be visible around the object. Imagine if the light source were directly above the top of the object. The length of the shadow is a result of how high above or below the top of the object the light source is. ![]() The object blocks the light coming from the source so that nothing behind the object gets any direct light. Tilted light source (in other words, the angle between the light source and the ground) and the size of the object it is illuminating determine the length of the shadow that the object casts. Vocabulary words which can be used to help talk about our experiences are alignment, casting, angle, and light source. The National Science Education Standards stress that geometry and light should be integrated into curricula as tools for learning about three dimensional objects. In this Thread, we will become familiar with the orientation of shadows, their size in relation to the object casting them, and how the alignment of the Sun, the object, and the shadow tells us much about how shadows work.
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