Let it Shine!

This week’s lesson on shining a light on each of the 12 minerals went very well. When Ben and I arrived to the classroom we made sure we had all of the materials out and ready. We had small squared pieces of cardboard, wax paper, and transparency to give the students to show them what the words opaque, translucent, and transparent mean. The students were well engaged in this lesson and eager to find out the results of each mineral’s light test.

When the students came back from recess, Ben and I started off by going over the agenda, science question of the day, and the goal of the day that was written on the overhead. Our science question for them was how much light does each mineral transmit? Our goal for the students was to have them complete light field tests on each of the 12 minerals and to then record their observations under “light” in their science workbooks. We then told them to please sort the minerals by their similarities and differences going by how much light each mineral transmitted.

HEMATITE

Before having the students do the activity, Ben discussed the two minerals hematite and graphite and how they have always been important in society. Ben explained how iron is made from hematite and iron has been around for thousands of years and helped Egyptians with their metal work. Ben then explained how graphite conducts electricity and was also one of the first minerals that were used to write with. The students were very interested with Ben’s brief science/history lesson and it was fun to hear their questions they had at the end.

GRAPHITE

Next, I had the students take out their science workbooks to show them the differences between transparent, translucent, and opaque. I had the students open up to a page with lots of text and had them put their transparencies on the text to show them that because they could read the text through the transparency, the transparency is transparent. I then had the students put their piece of wax paper on another part of the text to show them that you can see the text through the wax paper, but not as clearly as the transparency. Lastly, I had the students take their cardboard and put it over text. When they all said they couldn’t see anything I told them it was because the cardboard is opaque because you cannot see through it. I also had the students give me some other words they could use besides the three new words so they would understand what they were writing about for their observations.

When it was time for the students to do the activity, they were all very excited. They all did a great job and it didn’t take them long to shine the light on each of their 12 minerals. When they were finished with that we asked them to sort them into groups. Most of the students separated the minerals into 3 groups, the minerals that were transparent, the minerals that were translucent, and the minerals that were opaque.

Ben and I were thrilled we had time to do a wrap up discussion with them! We discussed their findings and how they grouped their minerals. Everyone wanted to share and as usual their enthusiasm made us not want to leave! This was a great lesson and a really fun one too!