Year 5

Light imitates art

Students learn about how light is transferred, how it helps them to see, and how reflections, shadows, and refraction occurs. They explore real-life applications by designing and/or making an artwork that utilises light in an artistic or celebratory capacity.

'LIGHT IMITATES ARTS' IS ONE OF OUR NEW TEACHING SEQUENCES FOR AC V9

  • On the 'Sequence overview' tab you'll find all the lessons in this sequence and curriculum alignment.
  • The 'Our design decisions' tab shows how key scientific ideas develop over the sequence, and shows how the sequence addresses curriculum achievement standards.
  • Have you taught this sequence? Use the Feedback button to let us know how it went!

Launch

Lesson 1 • Do you see what I see?

This lesson introduces the sequence content—exploring light, how it is transferred, and what happens when its path is interrupted by different objects—and context—how light can be used for artistic, decorative, and celebratory purposes.

Launch
Light imitates art

Inquire

Lesson 2 • How does light help us see?

Students identify sources of light and investigate how light is transferred and helps us to see.

Inquire
Light imitates art

Lesson 3 • Can we change the direction light is travelling?

Students consolidate the idea that light travels in straight lines, and that the direction of light is changed when it hits a reflective surface.

Inquire
Light imitates art

Lesson 4 • What happens to light when it hits a non-reflective surface?

Students investigate to find out how light interacts with translucent, transparent and opaque materials.

Inquire
Light imitates art

Lesson 5 • How can I make a shadow shorter or taller?

Students consolidate the idea that the direction, angle and proximity of a light source to an object will affect the shadow that is formed.

Inquire
Light imitates art

Lesson 6 • Does light travel through water?

Students investigate to find out what happens when light travels through a substance other than air, in this case, water.

Inquire
Light imitates art

Lesson 7 • What colour is light?

Students investigate the primary colours of light and what happens when these colours are combined.

Inquire
Light imitates art

Act

Lesson 8 • Designing a light artwork

Students apply their understanding of light, reflection, the creation of shadows, refractions and the colour spectrum of light, to design (and potentially make) a sculpture or artwork utilising one or more of these aspects.

Act
Light imitates art

The Australian Academy of Science supports and encourages broad use of its material. Unless indicated below, copyright material available on this website is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) licence.

Curriculum and syllabus alignment

Achievement standards

By the end of Year 5 students identify sources of light and model the transfer of light to explain observed phenomena. They describe examples of collaboration leading to advances in science, and scientific knowledge that has changed over time. They identify examples where scientific knowledge informs the actions of individuals and communities.

Students plan safe investigations to identify patterns and relationships and make reasoned predictions. They identify risks associated with investigations and key intercultural considerations when planning field work. They identify variables to be changed and measured. They use equipment to generate data with appropriate precision. They construct representations to organise data and information and describe patterns, trends and relationships. They compare their methods and findings to those of others, identify possible sources of error in their investigation, pose questions for further investigation and draw reasoned conclusions. They use language features that reflect their purpose and audience when communicating their ideas and findings.

Australian Curriculum V9 alignment

Science as a human endeavour

Science understanding

Science inquiry