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Exploring Light and Shadows

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Exploring Light and Shadows

Read the short investigation story and use the evidence to solve the questions. You do not need any equipment. When a question asks you to draw, show your ideas with arrows and labels.

The dark tent investigation

Mason and Ruby-Mae are testing how light makes shadows. In a dark tent, Mason shines a torch at a toy koala placed between the torch and a white screen. A clear plastic sheet lets most light through. A piece of cardboard blocks the light. They move the koala closer to the torch and notice its shadow on the screen becomes larger. Light travels from the torch in straight lines. When light reaches our eyes after bouncing off an object, we can see that object.

1.Which object in the tent is a light source?

The toy koala
The torch
The screen
The cardboard

2.Explain how Mason can see the toy koala when the torch is on.

3.Choose the material that would make the clearest shadow on the screen.

Clear plastic
Cardboard
Air
A clean glass window

4.Complete the sentence: Light travels in lines, and a shadow forms when light is by an object.

5.True or false? The screen makes its own light, so Mason can see the shadow.

TrueFalse

6.When Mason moves the koala closer to the torch, what happens to its shadow on the screen?

It gets larger
It gets smaller
It disappears every time
It changes into a light source

7.Ruby-Mae says, “The koala-shaped shadow proves that light bends around the koala.” Is Ruby-Mae correct? Use the investigation story, which states how light travels, to explain.

8.Match each material to the way it affects light. Materials: clear plastic, cardboard, tracing paper. Effects: lets most light pass through; blocks light; lets some light through but scatters it.

Clear plastic
Cardboard
Tracing paper

9.Predict what would happen to the shadow if Mason moved the torch farther away from the koala while keeping the screen in the same place. Explain your prediction.

10.Draw a simple setup that would make a shadow. Include and label a light source, an opaque object, a screen, and arrows showing the direction light travels.

Label the light source, opaque object and screen. Add straight arrows to show the direction of light.