Monday, November 18, 2013

How is it moving?


     Over the past few weeks in the classroom we have been looking at how light moves and how we can manipulate the movement of light sometimes.  We took a disco ball light that ran on batteries.  When it was turned on, the ball would light up and spin and the children were able to see how the white light moved along a surface.

     We tried the same thing again but with a colored light.  This time we covered the table with paper and offered the children crayons that were similar colors to the light pieces on the spinning light.  We wanted to see if the children would make the connection between the crayons and the motion of the light spinning on the table.

     The children immediately started to draw large circles on the paper over where the light was spinning.  We noticed they were not making lines or dots, just circles and circular motions.  One of the children began to get frustrated when he tried to draw on the light on the table because the light continued to spin.  It might be interesting to repeat this lesson to see if he finds a strategy to use while tracing the light.        
  
     In the future, it will be interesting to see if the children would be more inclined to trace a light projected onto the wall or table that is stationary.  It will be neat to compare the actions of the children with a spinning light, and a stationary light.