This resource accompanies our Rethink 6th Grade Science course. It includes ideas for use, ways to support exceptional children, ways to extend learning, digital resources and tools, tips for supporting English Language Learners and students with visual and hearing impairments. There are also ideas for offline learning. 

Students will demonstrate knowledge of visible light interactions with different materials and through different mediums (air, solids, and water). Students will use Sphero Bolt to create a flashlight. The goal is to create the brightest light from the LED lights on the Sphero BOLT. Students will need to understand how light interacts with different substances to successfully create the brightest flashlight. They will also test their lights in water to see how waves change direction and speed in different mediums.  The Light intensity will be measured using the function in google science journal.

In this activity, students learn about this silicon-based solid with a sponge-like structure, and also learn about density, and how aerogel is 99.8% air by volume, making it the lightest solid known to humans! Further, students learn about basic heat transfer and how aerogel is a great thermal insulator, having 39 times more insulation than the best fiberglass insulation, and about the wide array of aerogel applications.

Sample Learning Goals
Explain how light bends at the interface between two media and what determines the angle.
Apply Snell’s law to a laser beam incident on the interface between media.
Describe how the speed and wavelength of light changes in different media.
Describe the effect of changing wavelength on the angle of refraction.
Explain how a prism creates a rainbow.

This is an lesson about spectrographs. Learners will build and decorate their own spectrographs using simple materials and holographic diffraction gratings. After building the spectrographs, they observe the spectra of different light sources. Requires advance preparation to spray-paint the inside of the containers black the day before construction. The activity is part of Project Spectra, a science and engineering program for middle-high school students, focusing on how light is used to explore the Solar System.

Students build and decorate their own spectrographs using simple materials and holographic diffraction gratings. After building the spectrographs, they observe the spectra of different light sources as a homework activity.

Students will learn about human color perception by using colored lights to make additive color mixtures.

Students become familiar with the similarities and differences between electronic and printed text by comparing the textual aids included in a textbook with those of an educational website.

Students will learn basic concepts of the electromagnetic spectrum, identify waves, and determine if they are naturally occurring or manmade while investigating if they are harmful or not. This is 60-minute video conference.

In this lesson, students are introduced to the properties of electromagnetic radiation. Students create a “Quipo,” a method used by the ancient Incas. Students are also encouraged to use an electronic bulletin board to communicate with each other, post insights, ideas, evidence, and questions on electromagnetic radiation. As part of this activity, students will conduct a mock trial placing the different types of electromagnetic radiation on trial.

In this interactive, students investigate the differences between the various types of electromagnetic radiation.

In this picture dictation activity, students use a range of skills to investigate some ways humans use the waves on the electromagnetic spectrum.

Students observe and experiment with visual after images, observe white light and its component color spectrum,and learn about the basic parts of the eye and how the eye works.

This video outlines the similarities and differences between your eye and a video camera, and describes how the eyes are remarkably efficient organs, the result of hundreds of millions of years of coevolution with our brains.

Students learn how CCD cameras use color filters to create astronomical images in this Moveable Museum unit. The four-page PDF guide includes suggested general background readings for educators, activity notes, and step-by-step directions. Students look at black-and-white photos to understand gray scale and construct simple red and green cellophane filters and observe magazine images through them.

In this activity, students investigate how light moves through or bounces off different materials in different ways.

In this activity, students will do an experiment to help find the color in light.

In this lesson, students construct a simple spectrometer from a cereal box and a CD and use it to investigate light.

In this lesson, students will interpret primary source documents that depict what Isaac Newton did while experimenting with light. From this, students will be able to understand where rainbows come from and how a rainbow is formed. From this idea, students will be able to connect the ideas brought about by Newton with the electromagnetic spectrum.

Students learn how a telescope's aperture determines how much light it can gather in this Moveable Museum unit. It has three procedures, one of which is optional. The four-page PDF guide includes suggested general background readings for educators, activity notes, step-by-step directions, and information about where to obtain supplies. In this activity, the light collector is not a lens or a mirror, but a hole in a cardboard box. Light enters through the hole and lights up the box. Users can change the size of the hole and see how the amount of light entering the box changes. The results show why increasing the aperture of a telescope increases the amount of light it can collect.