Learning Goals: Students will have opportunities to learn •howtocorrectlyusethetermsenergy,solar,

source,reflect,absorb,wavelength,vibrate,soundwave,illuminate, and skyglow

•thatthesunisEarth’smainsourceofenergyandthatenergytravels

•thatlightisasourceofenergythatwe cansee

•howoureyesseelightenergy •thatthecoloursoftherainbowarepartof

thevisiblespectrum •whatcausessoundandhowittravels •aboutabsorptionandreflectionofsound •whatlightandsoundpollutionareand

theireffectsonourenvironment

Discussion Prompts: •Whatisenergy? •WhatisEarth’smainsourceofenergy? •Howdopeopleusethesun’senergytolive? •Islightatypeofenergy?Why? •Issoundatypeofenergy?Why? •Howdoeslightenergytravel? •Howdoessoundenergytravel? •Whatareexamplesofsoundandlightpollution?

Assessment Prompts: •Dostudentsdemonstrate,intheirdiscussionsand

answerstoquestions,understandingofthesciencevocabularyusedinthecardsforthisunit?

•Arestudentsabletocarryouttheskillsofscientificinquiry,followingactivityprocedurestepssafelyandaccurately,makingobservationswhenappropriate?

•Assessstudents’responsesduringdiscussions. -DostudentsunderstandthatthesunisEarth’s

mainsourceofenergyandthatenergytravels?

Cantheypointoutthatlightisaformofenergythatwecanseeandthatarainbowisavisiblelightspectrum?Dostudentsrecognizethateachcolouroflighthasadifferentwavelength?Canstudentsidentifyobjectsthatemitlight(the sun) andobjectsthatreflectlight(the moon)?

-Dostudentsrecognizethatsoundisaformofenergythattravelsinwaves?Cantheydescribethatsoundisduetovibrations?Canstudentsidentifymaterialsthatabsorbsoundandthosethatreflectsound?

-Canstudentsdescribeexamplesofsoundandlightpollution?Dostudentsrecognizethatouruseofsoundandlighttechnologiescontributestosoundandlightpollution?Canstudentsidentifyeffectsthatsoundandlightpollutionhaveonpeopleandtheenvironment?

Links to PCSP Student Book Sound and Light:Card1: seeLessons6,10,and12Card2: seeLessons6–8Card3: seeLessons9and10Card4: seeLessons2–5,and12Card5: seeLessons11and12

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Students explore sound and light energy: what it is, how it travels, and how it affects people and the environment.

Focus:

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PCSP Interactive Science Teacher’s Notes

Introduce students to the topic with the video of sunlight streaming through a forest. Discuss the video and any comments or questions students may have.

2

Students explore the sun as Earth’s main source of energy and how we use it.

Focus:

Activity Description: Text, visuals, and an example of an energy chain describe how the sun’s energy is passed to people.

Learning Goals: Students expand their understanding that the sun is Earth’s main source of energy, and that people depend on that energy to survive.

Activity Description: Students drag and drop images into the correct order to form an energy chain that begins with the sun and ends with the light and heat energy released by burning fossil fuels.

Learning Goals: Students extend their understanding of the concept of an energy chain and that we depend on the sun’s energy to survive.

Ask Students: How is burning fossil fuel another way that we use the sun’s energy to help us live? (it gives us light and heat, and some students may suggest it also provides us with electricity.)

Assessment: Are students able to place the images in the correct energy-chain order? Can students explain in their own words each step in this energy chain?

Activity Description: Students click through two layers of graphic and text information to find out about the basic purpose and uses of solar cells.

Learning Goals: Students explore the practical uses of solar cells and harnessing solar energy as a renewable energy source.

Ask Students: What are the benefits of using the sun as an energy source to run our cars, heat our water and homes, and generate electricity? (It is a renewable energy source and will never run out.)

Assessment: Can students identify the benefits of using solar cells rather than other forms of energy to run our machines?

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Activity Description: Students click through a series of visuals and text that describe additional types of energy that come from the sun and the practical uses we have for these forms of energy.

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Activity Description: Students prepare three cans, each filled with a different substance. They put the cans inside a black box and leave it in the sunlight for a period of time. They record the temperature of each substance every 30 minutes.

Learning Goal: Students will carry out a basic science experiment with the goal of taking and recording accurate measurements of temperature to determine which substance heats up the most.

Ask Students: What are your predictions for which substance will change temperature the most?

Assessment: Are students able to carry out the procedure and accurately take and record temperature measurements at precise time intervals? Can students identify which substance heated up the most during the experiment?

Learning Goal: Students explore the practical uses for the many types of radiant energy emitted by the sun.

Ask Students: What are some examples of technologies that use different types of energy from the sun? What are the benefits of these technologies? (cooking, health/medical applications, radio communications)

Assessment: Can students identify the benefits of some modern technologies that use forms of electromagnetic energy?

PCSP Interactive Science Teacher’s Notes 3

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Ask Students: What are the events in the energy chain that passes the sun’s energy to people? (Plants take in the sun’s energy; people eat plants or animal products from animals that eat plants.) Can you make up your own energy chain that shows the sun’s energy passing to people?

Assessment: Can students explain the events in the energy chain that passes the sun’s energy to people? Have students made the connection between energy from the sun and the energy they derive from eating food?

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Activity Description: When students click the orange icon, they are taken to a page that answers the Think question. On this page, students click on another orange icon and engage in a timed drag-and-drop activity, which asks them to identify objects that reflect light well, reflect light a bit, or do not reflect light at all.

Learning Goal: Students expand their understanding of objects that reflect light and those that do not reflect light.

Ask Students: Ask students to extend their learning into the classroom. Can students identify objects in the classroom that reflect light well, reflect

Activity Description: Students watch an animation, which displays the basic components of a flashlight and provides a basic answer to the Think question.

Learning Goal: Students explore how light reflects off of shiny surfaces.

Ask Students: What part of the flashlight causes light to travel in a beam of light?

Activity Description: This drag-and-drop activity asks students to drag blank labels onto the illustration and to identify the light source.

Learning Goal: Students expand their understanding of sources of light.

Ask Students: What is a light source? continued next page continued next page

PCSP Interactive Science Teacher’s Notes 4

Activity Description: Students examine a diagram of the parts of the human eye and find out what role each part plays in our ability to see. Students then click another Think icon to learn more about how light affects the size of the eye’s pupil.

Learning Goals: Students explore the parts of the human eye and how light affects the size of the eye’s pupil.

Ask Students: (Students work in pairs.) Can you name the parts of the eye to your partner? Can you explain to your partner the job that each part of the eye has? How can light cause the eye’s pupil to become larger or smaller?

Assessment: Can students name the parts of the eye and their functions? Do students understand that the quantity of light available to the eye affects the size of its pupil?

Students explore light energy and how our eyes see. Focus:

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Activity Description: Students click on three orange icons in the right-hand column of the screen. They are shown visuals and text that provide answers to the three questions posed in the right column.

Learning Goal: Students learn the answers to questions relating to light and natural phenomena that they encounter in their daily life. Specifically, they will learn that 1) the moon reflects light, but does continued next page

Introduce students to the topic with the video of a girl reading with a flashlight. Discuss the video and any comments or questions students may have.

A helicopter uses its spotlights while flying by a nighttime city scape.

Video:

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(shiny reflector) Why does the reflector affect light in this way? (because light reflects off of shiny surfaces)

Assessment: Do students recognize that light reflects off of shiny surfaces? Do they understand that the reflector in the flashlight reflects the light, causing it to travel in a beam? (Without the reflector, the light would travel out in all directions from its source.)

(anything that emits its own light ) Is reflected light a light source? (no, because reflected light does not emit its own light )

Assessment: Can students identify light sources as opposed to sources of reflected light?

light a bit, or do not reflect light at all?

Assessment: Did students successfully identify the appropriate answers during the timed drag-and-drop activity? Do they recognize that shiny objects reflect light? (If some students struggled to make the appropriate identifications, help them understand that the objects that reflect light well are very shiny, whereas the objects that do not reflect light are not shiny at all. Use real objects in your classroom to show students the difference.)

not emit it; 2) the speed of light emitted from the sun travels at 299 792 km/s; 3) shadows form when light rays can’t pass through an object.

Ask Students: What do the terms emit and reflect mean? (emit is to give out or give off; reflect is to bounce off an object ) Does the moon emit or reflect light? (reflect ) What is happening to sunlight when you see your shadow on the ground? (the sun’s light is blocked by the body, which causes the shadow to form)

Assessment: Can students explain the meaning of the terms emit and reflect using examples? (If students cannot explain the meaning of these terms, work with them to find everyday examples of each and develop explanations of the terms.) Do students recognize what is happening to sunlight when shadows form?

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PCSP Interactive Science Teacher’s Notes 5

Activity Description: Students are given instructions on how to build a simple periscope. They record their observations on the computer or in their notebooks.

Learning Goal: To extend students’ understanding that light can be reflected.

Ask Students: After looking through your periscopes, what are your observations about the way light travels? (it can be reflected) When would a periscope be useful? (to see from a hidden position, for example, if you wanted to hide behind a wall and raise your periscope above the wall to see what’s on the other side)

Assessment: Do students recognize that what they are viewing through the periscope is reflected light off a shiny surface (mirrors)? (If students don’t quite grasp this, ask them to tape a piece of dark paper over each mirror in their periscope and they will not be able to see any light, because the paper is not a shiny, reflective surface.)

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Activity Description: Students are given a description of how rainbows form. Students click on an additional orange icon, which takes them to a drag-and drop activity in which they place the colours in the order in which they appear in the rainbow (the visible spectrum).

Learning Goals: Students discover how a rainbow forms and they reinforce their knowledge of the colours of the rainbow.

Ask Students: Can you describe what a rainbow is and how it forms? (when light passes through raindrops, it bends and splits into colours) What are the colours of the spectrum, or of the rainbow? (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet ) What is the order of those colours? (Roy G Biv – the mnemonic that helps to remember the correct order)

Assessment: Do students understand that when light passes through raindrops, it bends and splits into colours? Can students think of another example where they have seen this happen (light passing through a prism)? Can students name the order of the colours of the rainbow?

PCSP Interactive Science Teacher’s Notes 6

Introduce students to the topic with the video that shows the visible spectrum reflected off different surfaces. Discuss the video and any comments or questions students may have.

Students explore the visible spectrum.Focus:

Activity Description: A visual and text describe why underwater light appears blue and how, at certain depths of the ocean, there is no light.

Learning Goals: Students learn why underwater light appears blue. They reinforce their understanding of the term “absorb” in relation to light waves.

Activity Description: A visual and text describe why the visible spectrum is visible on the surface of a compact disc.

Learning Goal: Students review their knowledge of how the grooves of a compact disc cause light to bend and spread out or split into the colours of the spectrum.

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Activity Description: Students click on three orange icons in the right column of the screen and are taken to visuals, short animations, and text that provide answers to the three Think questions posed.

Learning Goals: Students learn the answers to three questions related to light. They also review the concept that objects absorb and reflect different wavelengths of light, which affects the colours we see. Specifically, they will learn 1) why bubbles produce rainbow-like effects; 2) why we see the colour green when we look at a tree leaf; 3) why white objects appear white. continued next page

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Activity Description: Students make a colour wheel to create white light from the rainbow of colours. When students click the orange icon at the top right of this screen, they are taken to another “rainbow” activity, in which they have to identify true and false statements related to rainbows.

Learning Goals: Students observe that spinning a wheel with the colours of the rainbow enables them to see white light. For the second activity, students are able to identify true and false statements related to rainbows.

Ask Students: What did you observe when you spun the pencil (the colour wheel) quickly between your hands? (white light ) What is one “fact” you know about rainbows? (Students should identify at least one correct statement from the second activity.)

Assessment: Were students able to follow the procedure well enough to “create” white light with their colour wheels? Did students accurately and clearly record their observations? Are students able to identify statements that are “fact” or “fiction” in the second activity?

PCSP Interactive Science Teacher’s Notes 7

Ask Students: How can you tell that grooves or little marks on the CD cause white light to split? (because colours of the spectrum are visible, so white light must have been split) Review with the class: What happens when light passes through small openings? (it bends and spreads out into the spectrum)

Assessment: Can students explain why they see the spectrum on the surface of a CD? (because light passes between the small marks on the CD, causing the light to bend and spread out into the spectrum)

Ask Students: (Students work in pairs.) Can you describe to your partner why underwater light appears blue?

Assessment: Do students understand why underwater light appears blue—can they explain this idea to their partner? (water absorbs colours in the red part of the spectrum and reflects light in the blue part of the spectrum)

Ask Students: Do all the colours of the rainbow (white light) strike a green leaf or only green light? (all colour—white light) If all the colours of the rainbow strike a green leaf, why do we only see green? (the leaf reflects green light to our eyes and absorbs the other colours of the spectrum) Do all the colours of the rainbow strike white objects? (yes ) How do you know? (because we see the objects as white, it means all the white light is being reflected to our eyes)

Assessment: Can students explain why we see green from a green leaf or white from a white object? Do students recognize that they sometimes see the colours of a rainbow on a bubble because the light is reflecting at different angles?

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PCSP Interactive Science Teacher’s Notes 8

Students explore sound energy and how our ears hear.

Focus:

Activity Description: A visual and text describe how sound is produced with a guitar. Students can then click on a blue icon, which takes them to a video of a person playing a guitar, with an additional description of how sound is continued next page

Activity Description: A visual animation and text describe the basic structure and function of the human ear—how it collects and translates sound waves into the sound that is heard in the brain.

Learning Goals: Students explore how the basic structure and function of the human ear enables us to hear sound waves. Students review the meaning of the term “sound wave.”

Ask Students: What is a sound wave? (a wave or vibration in the air, liquid, or solid that can be heard ) (Students work in pairs.) Can you explain to your partner

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Introduce students to the topic with the video of a marching band. Discuss the video and any comments or questions students may have.

Activity Description: Students click on three orange icons in the right column of the screen and they are taken to visuals, short animations, and text that provide answers to the three questions posed.

Learning Goals: Students review the meaning of the terms

frequency and pitch. They discover that light travels faster than sound. They also learn about the “sonic boom” created by supersonic jets.

Ask Students: First orange icon: What does the term frequency mean? (In terms of sound, it is the number of sound wave cycles per second.) What is a frequency on the radio? (the station’s number on the radio dial is the frequency the station uses to broadcast sound waves) Do slower vibrations make high-pitched sounds or low-pitched sounds? (low) Second orange icon: What evidence does a lightning and thunder storm give you to know that light travels faster continued next page

Activity Description: Students review the terms reflect and absorb in relation to sound energy. Students are then presented with three visuals and questions regarding the absorption and reflection of sound. One question is answered for students; two questions remain for students to consider and answer.

Learning Goals: Students review the terms absorb and reflect. Students correctly identify objects that reflect and absorb sound.

Ask Students: What does the word absorb mean? (to soak up) What does the word reflect mean? (to bounce off ) Why is sound absorbed in one picture? (Sound is absorbed because of the object put in the path of the sound wave: The pillow has a soft surface and absorbs, or soaks up, sound.) Why is sound reflected in the other picture? (Sound is reflected because of the object put in the path of the sound wave: The book reflects continued next page

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Activity Description: Students build a sound apparatus and listen to the sound it makes in different ways. They record their observations.

Learning Goal: To extend students’ understanding of how sound travels.

Ask Students: What did you hear the first time you struck the coat hanger? What did you hear when you held the string to your ears and struck the coat hanger?

Assessment: Are students able to build and test the sound apparatus safely and according to directions? Are students able to follow the testing procedure, recording

their observations as they work?

PCSP Interactive Science Teacher’s Notes 9

the parts of the ear? How does the ear collect sound waves for us to hear?

Assessment: Listen to student explanations of the workings of the human ear. Encourage some student pairs to make brief oral presentations of how sound waves move through the ear and, ultimately, to the brain as electrical signals. Some students may wish to draw a diagram of the inner ear to relate their understanding. Can students accurately describe what a sound wave is? Can they accurately describe the parts and function of the human ear and how we hear sound?

sound, because it has a smooth and hard surface and sound bounces off of it.)

Assessment: Can students point out and name objects in the classroom that reflect sound? Can they explain why sound will reflect off that object? Can students point out objects that will absorb sound? Can they explain why sound will be absorbed by that object?

than sound? (you see lightning before you hear thunder ) Third orange icon: Why do you hear a sonic boom after a plane has already flown by? (because the plane flies faster than sound travels, so you see the plane before you hear it )

Assessment: First orange icon: Students could write and present a short “radio-play” in “radio announcer” voices. The subject of the play is to describe to listeners the meaning of the words pitch and frequency and what frequency means on a radio dial. They could also describe to their listeners the difference between high- and low-pitched sounds. Can students accurately describe these concepts in their radio play presentation? Second orange icon: Can students recall their experiences of seeing and hearing thunder and lightning storms? Ask them to write one paragraph describing the experience, which includes an explanation of how they know that light travels faster than sound. Third orange icon: Can students explain to you what causes a sonic boom?

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made by playing the instrument.

Learning Goals: Students will recognize that a person is the source of the energy that starts guitar strings vibrating and that the vibrating strings produce the sound we hear.

Ask Students: What causes guitar strings to vibrate? What happens when guitar strings vibrate? (If a guitar is available to bring to class, demonstrate to students how even the smallest vibration produces a bit of sound from a guitar string.)

Assessment: Listen to student explanations: Do they understand that sound is only produced if the guitar strings vibrate?

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Activity Description: A visual and text describe to students some ways that light pollution affects people and the environment.

Learning Goal: Students explore the impacts that our light technologies have on people and the environment.

Ask Students: Compare different areas on the world map: Why do you think some areas on the map are so brightly lit while other areas are not? (brightly lit areas show parts of the world where there is a concentration of electric lights in use) What are some examples of light pollution in your neighbourhood? How could you reduce light pollution in your neighbourhood?

Assessment: Do students recognize that excessive use of light technology impacts people and the environment? (Have a class discussion in which students suggest examples of the impacts of light pollution to demonstrate their understanding of this idea. Encourage them to use the Internet to find examples if necessary.)

Activity Description: Students read a text paragraph describing decibels as the measure of sound intensity. Students then click on visuals to hear audio samples of sounds that register at different decibel levels. Students click on an additional orange icon to complete a drag-and-drop activity that asks them to pick out sounds that are harmful to hearing and sounds that are just annoying. There are no right and wrong answers suggested in this activity, but students are asked to write down explanations for their choices.

Learning Goals: Students explore how some sounds can be harmful to hearing or annoying. Students also review the term decibel.

Ask Students: Which sounds in the activity do you think are harmful and which sounds do you think are annoying? Why? One sound is 60 db and another sound is 100 db: Which of these two sounds is harmful to your hearing? How do you know?

Assessment: Can students accurately identify which sounds are harmful to hearing and which are just annoying? Can they provide reasonable explanations for their choices? Are students able to recognize that a higher decibel sound (over 85 db) is harmful to hearing but that a sound that is in the lower decibel range (below 85 db) is not?

PCSP Interactive Science Teacher’s Notes 10

Introduce students to the topic with the video that shows examples of light and sound pollution in a city. Discuss the video and any comments or questions students may have.

Students explore light and sound pollution and their effects on people and the environment.

Focus:

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Activity Description: Students create a sound map of an area of their school or of their home. Students write down descriptions of the sounds from their sound map and which sounds they find annoying.

Learning Goal: Students identify the sources of sound in their classroom or in their home and identify which sounds they believe to be annoying.

Ask Students: What are the top three most annoying sounds you’ve put in your sound map? Why? Do you believe any of these sounds could be harmful to your hearing? How could you find out? (Students can conduct Internet research.)

Assessment: Are students able to visually represent the sounds in their home or classroom in a sound map? Do students coherently express in writing their ideas on which sounds included in their sound map they consider annoying?

PCSP Interactive Science Teacher’s Notes 11