Chapter Ten of Marcia Brennan's Flowering Light: Kabbalistic Mysticism and the Art of Elliot R. Wolfson
Students explore the densities and viscosities of fluids as they create a colorful 'rainbow' using household liquids. While letting the fluids in the rainbow settle, students conduct 'The Great Viscosity Race,' another short experiment that illustrates the difference between viscosity and density. Later, students record the density rainbow with sketches and/or photography.
In a hands-on way, students explore light's properties of absorption, reflection, transmission and refraction through various experimental stations within the classroom. To understand absorption, reflection and transmission, they shine flashlights on a number of preselected objects. To understand refraction, students create indoor rainbows. An understanding of the fundamental properties of light is essential to designing an invisible laser security system.
Light is a form of energy. It interacts with matter, or the material that makes up an object, in different ways based upon the qualities of that material. Light passes through objects that are transparent. These items appear to be clear. Materials that are translucent let some light pass through, but this light is scattered. These items look milky or fuzzy. Some materials are reflective, or bounce light back. Reflective items are shiny. And objects that are opaque block the light.
The colors of the rainbow are within visible, or white light. An easy way to remember the colors is to remember ROY G. BIV - red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. These colors make up the spectrum of visible light.
Student groups rotate through four stations to examine light energy behavior: refraction, magnification, prisms and polarization. They see how a beam of light is refracted (bent) through various transparent mediums. While learning how a magnifying glass works, students see how the orientation of an image changes with the distance of the lens from its focal point. They also discover how a prism works by refracting light and making rainbows. And, students investigate the polar nature of light using sunglasses and polarized light film.
Chapter Twelve of Marcia Brennan's Flowering Light: Kabbalistic Mysticism and the Art of Elliot R. Wolfson
