Light Lesson Plan: Energy

Grade Levels: 3-5, 6-8

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This lesson accompanies the BrainPOP topic Light, and supports the standard of making observations to provide evidence that energy can be transferred from place to place by light. Students demonstrate understanding through a variety of projects.

Step 1: ACTIVATE PRIOR KNOWLEDGE

Ask students:

  • How do you use different forms of energy in your everyday life?
  • Where do you see examples of different forms of energy in your classroom?

Step 2: BUILD KNOWLEDGE

Step 3: APPLY and ASSESS 

Assign the Light Challenge and Quiz,  prompting students to apply essential literacy skills while demonstrating what they learned about this topic.

Step 4: DEEPEN and EXTEND

Students express what they learned about light while practicing essential literacy skills with one or more of the following activities. Differentiate by assigning ones that meet individual student needs.

  • Make-a-Movie: Produce a BrainPOP-style movie explaining the effects of absorption, reflection, and refraction of light.
  • Make-a-Map: Create a concept map identifying how light travels from a source, and how its path changes as it hits different objects. 
  • Creative Coding: Code a comic describing the importance of light energy for human life.

More to Explore 

Energy Unit: Continue to build understanding around energy transmission by exploring more BrainPOP science topics.

Simulation: Bending Light: Manipulate prisms and bend light waves to create rainbows in this simulation game.

Teacher Support Resources:

Lesson Plan Common Core State Standards Alignments

Lesson Plan Next Generation Science Standards Alignments

Related:

    Filed as:  3-5, 4-PS3-4, 4-PS4-2, 6-8, BrainPOP, CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.3.1, CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.3.3, CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.4.1, CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.4.3, CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.4.7