We began our learning about light by considering what we already knew and remembered about how shadows are formed. We learnt in detail about how our eyes work – this included lots of new vocabulary which we quickly understood; some impressive annotated diagrams were produced.
Understanding that light travels in straight lines was the key to our success in drawing diagrams to show how we can see things. We learnt that light travels from the source, is reflected off an object and into the eye.
Next, we were ready to learn about mirrors. We investigated the angles at which light is reflected off a mirror and discovered the the angle of reflection is always equal to the angle of incidence (this is the angle at which light hits the mirror).
Finally, we were ready to make our own periscopes! These are often used on submarines and they used mirrors to reflect the light. It was so much fun using our periscopes to spy on other classes and adults around the school!
We haven’t yet finished our sequence of learning; we will be investigating how shadows change next week and then learning about refraction.