Teachers’ notes – Light sources
Synopsis
Initially, learners use a video stimulus to consider the importance of light in their everyday life.
They share and discuss ideas about where light comes from before identifying and comparing
different light sources. They list and make a survey of school light sources, recording and
interpreting data and presenting findings. Learners classify light sources using their own
criteria before diamond ranking different sources and justifying their thinking. Finally, learners
consider what darkness is and describe places they have been when it has been very dark.
Curriculum links
How things work:
5. how light travels and how this can be used
Skills
Communication: 1 & 2
Enquiry – Planning: 2, 3 & 5
Enquiry – Developing: 4, 5, 6 & 7
Enquiry – Reflecting: 5 & 6
Activities
Tab 1
The first tab in this activity provides learners with a time lapse
video of the sun ‘rising’ until it reaches its highest point in the sky.
The learners are required to describe and discuss what they see
happening in the video. They are asked to sketch the second half
of this apparent journey until the sun ‘sets’ and to explain their
ideas. Learners should consider and discuss the importance of
light in their everyday life. They could think about and discuss
statements like ‘plants require sunlight in order to produce food’,
‘people require light to see’ and ‘without light there would be no
life on planet Earth’.
Tab 2

In this tab learners are asked where light comes from.
They are encouraged to share and discuss their ideas about
different light sources before recording their ideas by drawing or
writing. Rollover questions encourage learners to compare the
light sources they have listed by considering how they are
different and how they are similar. They should be encouraged to
consider sources such as the sun, stars, lightning, light bulbs,
candles, torches, different fires, etc. The inclusion of sources like
mirrors and the Moon is likely and will provide the basis for
discussion about primary and secondary sources of light and
help to address misconceptions.
Tab 3
Learners are asked to make a list of the different light sources in
the classroom. The rollovers ask them to choose five of these
light sources and to quantify how many of these there are in the
school.
Tab 4
The aim of this tab is for learners to explore recording and
interpreting data and presenting findings. They are provided with
a template for a blank bar chart and asked to record the results
of their classroom light sources survey as a bar chart.
Tab 5
In this tab the learners are asked to classify light sources using
their own criteria. A
button generates photographs of the
following light sources.
car headlight, table lamp, fire, traffic light, street light, candle,
torch, TV, Sun
Learners are required to drag and drop the photographs to group
them, give each group a title and explain why they have put each
photograph in a particular group.
Tab 6
In this tab learners are provided with 12 photographs – 10 of
primary light sources and 2 of secondary light sources (only
reflect light from a primary source). Learners are asked to click
on any 3 photographs to compare them. When three
photographs have been clicked these images open in a separate
tab that encourages learners to compare the images and decide
which is the ‘odd one out’ and to explain why.
The 12 photographs are of:
Lighthouse, candle, match, floodlights, sun, fire, stars, firework,
torch, headlight, Moon, mirror.
Tab 7
In this tab learners are required to choose nine different light
sources and to rank order them according to how bright they are.
Learners are able to record their light sources on grey cards and
drag and drop them into a diamond ranking grid to show their
ideas. Learners should justify their reasoning as to the brightness
of different light sources. This is likely to be an area that will
promote much discussion as learners may well choose light
sources that have a variable brightness, for example, light bulbs,
candles, torches and so on. They might have to rank sources
using ideas like the ‘brightest I have seen’.
Tab 8
The final tab in this activity asks the learners to think about and
discuss what darkness is and to describe places where they have
been when it has been very dark. In the Foundation Phase,
learners are given opportunities to understand that ‘darkness is
the absence of light’. It is unlikely that learners will have
experienced total darkness for any period of time other than
possibly being blindfolded during a game.