Science Week

Classroom
Resource

Investigating Light
DPSM/ESERO
Framework for Inquiry
THEME Overall theme
Strand:

CURRICULUM Maths:

Strand Unit:

Curriculum Objectives:

Skills Development:

Considerations
ENGAGE for inclusion
THE TRIGGER WONDERING EXPLORING

INVESTIGATE
CONDUCTING THE SHARING: INTERPRETING
STARTER QUESTION PREDICTING
INVESTIGATION THE DATA / RESULTS

TAKE THE NEXT STEP

APPLYING LEARNING MAKING CONNECTIONS THOUGHTFUL ACTIONS

REFLECTION
DPSM/ESERO
Framework for Inquiry
THEME SCIENCE RISING: LIGHT
Strand: SESE: Energy and Forces, Magnetism and Electricity, Science and the Environment.
Maths: Shape and Space, Number, Measures, Data.
Strand Unit: Light, Operations, Lines and Angles, 2D Shapes, Length, Area, Representing and Interpreting Data.
CURRICULUM
Curriculum Objectives: Learn that light is a form of energy. Investigate the splitting and mixing of light - effects of flat shiny
surface, curved shiny surface.
Investigate current electricity. Use wires, bulbs, motors and batteries.
Appreciate the application of science and technology in familiar contexts - information and communication technologies.
Investigate the refraction of light.
Explore how objects may be magnified using simple lens or magnifier.
Estimate, measure and construct angles in degrees.
Skills Development: Questioning, Observing, Predicting, Analysing, Investigating and Experimenting, Recording and
Communicating, Designing and Making.

ENGAGE Considerations
for inclusion
THE TRIGGER WONDERING EXPLORING
Consider
Hang a glass prism in the window. • Where do the different colours come Investigating Mirrors potential area
See how it forms rainbows on the from? How does a rainbow form? • Explore with plane mirrors - mirror of difficulty
walls. • If we can split light into different images, mirror writing, paired mirrors. for students
colours, could we combine those with Special
• Explore with concave and convex mirrors.
colours to make white light? Educational
Investigating Refraction Needs.
• Does light always travel in straight
lines? • Explore a selection of magnifying glasses,
• Can light be made to change direction? telescopes, binoculars, cameras. What do
• Are there any devices that help us we notice about them?
to see further away – binoculars, • Maybe look at reading glasses and also
telescopes, the zoom function on a get the children who wear glasses to
camera. examine their own.
• What is it about these devices that • What do they notice about the lenses?
help us to see objects that are far Are they the same in both types of
away? What do they contain? glasses? Why are they different?
• What is a lens? • Explore with the pencil / straw in water.
• Hand out convex and concave lenses and
explore with them.

INVESTIGATION 1 – RAINBOW SPINNER

CONDUCTING THE SHARING: INTERPRETING
STARTER QUESTION PREDICTING
INVESTIGATION THE DATA / RESULTS

• If we combine the • Will the colours combine if • Divide the disc into seven • What colour was the disc
seven colours of the we spin the disc? equal sections and colour when it was spun?
rainbow by spinning • What will happen if we try them the different colours • Did it make a difference
the disc very fast what different size sections for of the rainbow. what colours were used?
will happen? the different colours? • Spin the disc using string,
• What will happen if a pencil or by using an
we use different colour electric motor and making
combinations? a circuit.

INVESTIGATION 2 – SATELLITES AND REFLECTION

CONDUCTING THE SHARING: INTERPRETING
STARTER QUESTION PREDICTING
INVESTIGATION THE DATA / RESULTS

• If a ball is bounced off • Start by bouncing the ball. • Place a slit in a sheet • How did we reassure the
the ground or wall at What do we notice about angle of card and shine the angles?
an angle what way will at which it bounces back? Will torch light though. • What did we notice about
it bounce away? light behave in the same way? • Change the direction the angles?
• If light hits a mirror • Will the light be reflected back of the card.
at an angle (the angle in the same direction? • Mark the angles and
of incidence) what • Will the light go in a different measure.
way will the light be direction?
reflected? • Draw a table of
• How will we record our measurements.
prediction?
DPSM/ESERO
Framework for Inquiry
INVESTIGATION 3 – INVESTIGATING REFRACTION (MAKE A MODEL TELESCOPE) Considerations
for inclusion
CONDUCTING THE SHARING: INTERPRETING Consider
STARTER QUESTION PREDICTING potential area
INVESTIGATION THE DATA / RESULTS
of difficulty
• Can we use what we have • What could we use for the • Provide materials for • Did our telescope work? for students
learned about lenses to tubes of our telescope? the children to make with Special
• Why did we use 2 different
design our own telescope? a telescope. Educational
• Could we experiment with lenses?
Needs.
the placing of lenses without • Why was the image up-
using tubes? How could we side down?
secure them in place?

TAKE THE NEXT STEP

APPLYING LEARNING MAKING CONNECTIONS THOUGHTFUL ACTIONS

• Find out about the work of Irish Scientist John Tyndall. What contribution did he make to our understanding of light?
• Electricity flows in the circuit because of the movement of tiny particles called electrons. Electrons were first named by an
Irish scientist called George Johnstone Stoney. Can we find out more about him and his work?
• What else can we do with electricity?
• How do satellites work and what are they used for?
• Try using water as a magnifying glass and magic coin activity.
• Much of our present day understanding of astronomy comes from the work of William Parsons, the third Earl of Rosse who
built a giant reflecting telescope at Birr Castle and used it to study the stars. What can we find out about him?
• Try out DPSM activities ‘Mirror Writing”, “Creepy Reflections and Floating Finger”, “Make a Periscope” and “Solar Energy” which
all relate to light.

• Did I meet my learning objectives?

• What went well, what would I change?
• Are there cross curriculum opportunities here?
REFLECTION • Are the children moving on with their science skills?
• What questions worked very well?
• What questions didn’t work well?
• Ask the children would they change anything or do anything differently.
 Rainbow Spinner
RAINBOW SPINNER
Preparation
CLASS LEVEL Third – sixth class

OBJECTIVES Content strand and strand unit

Energy & forces, Light

Through investigation the child should be enabled to investigate the splitting and mixing
of light, SESE: Science Curriculum page 85.

In this activity children learn that not only can white light be broken up into the rainbow
colours, but also that the rainbow colours can be brought together to produce white light.
They also learn about persistence of vision (i.e. that if things move fast enough the eye
cannot distinguish between them and they merge).

Skill development
Making; observing

CURRICULUM LINKS Geography

Natural environment/weather phenomena

Visual arts
Paint and colour/painting

BACKGROUND A previous activity, perhaps a demonstration, of white light being broken into the seven
rainbow colours by a prism would be helpful.

Working with bubbles is another way of introducing some ideas about colours.

MATERIALS/EQUIPMENT White cardboard, Scissors, Cup or jam jar, Strong string (120 cm works well), Pencil,
Coloured pencils or markers, Small electric fan, Protractor (for older children only).

PREPARATION Collection of materials and equipment

BACKGROUND Ordinary light consists of the seven rainbow colours, viz. Red, orange,
INFORMATION yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet.

Isaac Newton was the first person to show that light could be split up
into seven different colours.

Just as raindrops, prism, etc. can split white light into these seven
colours so can white light be made by mixing the seven colours together.

By spinning the disc quickly the eye sees all the colours together (persistence of vision)
and so the disc appears white (in practice the disc appears off-white, as most colours are
not pure).
 Rainbow Spinner
RAINBOW SPINNER
Activity
SETTING THE SCENE Discussion on colour – what would the world be like without it, e.g. clothes,
weather, gardens, organising city traffic, etc.

Not all creatures see colours in the same way, e.g. guinea pigs and squirrels are
colour blind. Colour is really the way our eyes see different kinds of light.

TRIGGER QUESTIONS When/where do you see rainbow colours?

Where do you think that the colours that you see in rainbows, in bubbles, on CDs,
oil, etc. come from?

What are the rainbow colours?

If you can split light up into rainbow colours (by raindrops, prism, CD, etc.) can you
make white light by bringing the rainbow colours together? TRY AND SEE!

If we switch off the light will we see the colour?

DEVELOPMENT OF ACTIVITY You can bring the colours together by making a cardboard disc with all the colours
and then spinning – a rainbow spinner.

SAFETY General care with scissors

ACTIVITY Cut out a cardboard disc and divide it into seven equal segments (the older children
may like to do this with a protractor). Colour the segments the seven colours of the
rainbow.

Make two holes in the centre of the card 1 cm. apart and thread the string through
them making a loop at each end. Put a finger through the end of each loop and flip
the disc over the string several times until the string is well twisted. Pull your hands
apart and let the string go slack. The disc should now spin.

OR The card can be placed on a pencil and then spun like a top.

What colour does the card appear?

Rainbow Spinner
RAINBOW SPINNER
Review
REVIEW Is there any difference between coloured pencils and markers in this activity? Does it
matter what order the colours are arranged on the disc?

ASSESSMENT The children could display their rainbow spinner and use diagrams and text to explain
how they work. They could film their spinners and add a voice-over explaining how
they work.

FOLLOW-UP ACTIVITIES The coloured card can be placed on the spindle of a motor. When the motor is
connected to a battery the spindle will turn and the card rotates. Reverse the
connections between the motor and the battery. Is there any difference?

The children could be asked: Colour Wheel

What else would you like to find out?

How would you find it out?

Motor
This would encourage them to design their own
investigation.

Battery
 SATELLITES AND
SATELLITES_ REFLECTION
SENDING SIGNALS (E.G. TV, TELEPHONE,
AND_REFLECTIONS
INTERNET) ACROSS LONG DISTANCES

Equipment: 1. .
2. Plane ( ) mirror, white A4 paper, small torch (one with single bulb gives a better single ray
of light than halogen type with multiple bulbs), cardboard, scissors, protractor, pencil, book or
other object to prop up mirror.
3. For follow-up activity: Concave mirror, piece of plain A4 paper, sun or torch or light of any sort.

Suggested 5th- 6th

Class Level:

Preparation: Darkened room if possible for Activity 2.

Background REFLECTION OF LIGHT

information:

When light hits a surface at a certain angle (called the angle of incidence) it bounces off the surface
at the same angle ( ).
(See DPSM activity ‘Make a Periscope’ for similar concept).

SATELLITES
A satellite is something which orbits a planet.
The Moon is a natural satellite of the Earth. There are
now thousands of man-made satellites which orbit
the Earth.

Soviet Union in 1957. It was called Sputnik 1 and it studied the atmosphere.
Since then thousands of satellites have been launched into space for lots of different reasons:
for communications (TV, radio, telephone and Internet - the signals are sent up to the satellites,

are received back down in another part of the world), weather forecast, studying the Earth itself,
looking at plant cover and the effects of climate change, etc.

GEOSTATIONARY SATELLITES
Many signals (e.g. from mobile phones) are sent from one mast to another directly via waves in
straight lines. But if the signals are to be sent over very long distances across the world, then the
masts would have to be extremely high to allow for the curvature of the earth (e.g. nearly 2 km
high for transmission between Europe and the USA).
 SATELLITES AND REFLECTION
SATELLITES_
SENDING SIGNALS (E.G. TV, TELEPHONE,
INTERNET) ACROSS LONG DISTANCES
AND_REFLECTIONS
However, if a kind of mirror for the waves is put in a

can be overcome (a bit like seeing around a

). Because the Earth is
rotating this’ mirror’ has to rotate also, and exactly in
time with the earth. This is called a Geostationary

Very large amounts of communications (telephone,

Internet and TV) are also sent long distances along very
These go along the
ground and under the sea. They have largely replaced the old copper cables.

Trigger If you throw a ball straight against a wall or onto the ground, what happens?
questions: (It bounces back straight at you).

If you throw a ball at an angle against the wall or on the ground, what happens?
(It bounces off the wall or ground at an angle in the opposite direction from you).

What way does the ball bounce off the table in table tennis, or off the side of a snooker table?

What are the different ways that radio, TV, telephone and Internet communications travel across
various distances? (

What is a SAT NAV?

(A piece of electronic equipment in a car. It can tell you which way you need to go by using
information received from a satellite).

Content: SCIENCE: Energy and Forces – Light

MATHS: Lines and Angles

Data: Representing and Interpreting Data
SPHE: Myself and the wider world – Environmental care

Skills: Investigating and Experimenting, Observing, Measuring, Recording, Analysing

Cross- Geography:
curricular
Links: Human Environment – Transport and Communications
Natural Environment – Planet Earth in Space
 SATELLITES AND REFLECTION
SATELLITES_
SENDING SIGNALS (E.G. TV, TELEPHONE,
INTERNET) ACROSS LONG DISTANCES
AND_REFLECTIONS
Activity: 1. Bouncing a ball at an angle to the ground.
• Stand some distance away from the other person.
• Can you throw the ball against a wall, or onto the ground, at an angle so that the ball reaches
the other person exactly?
• What do you notice about the angle at which the ball hits the ground, and comes off the
ground?

2. Reflecting light off a plane mirror.

• Make a very narrow slit from the edge, and at right angles, into a piece of cardboard.
• Put a sheet of plain white paper onto the table.
• Prop up the mirror into a vertical position (against a book or something similar) on the paper.
• Draw a line along the back of the mirror.
• Shine the torch through the vertical slit in the cardboard, to give
a narrow beam of light coming through the cardboard.
(Does the distance between the torch and cardboard make
any difference to the width of the beam of light?).
• Direct the narrow beam at right angles to the mirror.
What happens to the reflected beam?
• Now shine the narrow beam of light at an angle to the mirror.
In what direction does the reflected beam go?
• Can you draw along the incident ray and the reflected ray?
(See diagram).
• Take away the torch and draw a right angle where
the light hit the mirror.
• With your protractor measure the angle between the
incident ray and the perpendicular (angle of incidence).
• Then measure the angle between the reflected ray
and the perpendicular (angle of reflection).

Record these angles. Are they acute or obtuse?

• Repeat this activity a number of times, with the light hitting the mirror at different angles.
• What conclusion do you come to? Is there any connection between the two angles?

ANGLE OF INCIDENCE ANGLE OF REFLECTION

 SATELLITES AND REFLECTION
SATELLITES_
SENDING SIGNALS (E.G. TV, TELEPHONE,
INTERNET) ACROSS LONG DISTANCES
AND_REFLECTIONS
Safety: Do not shine torches into eyes, or look directly into the sun. It is very bad for eyes.

Follow-up 1.
activities: • Shine a beam of light through the teeth of a comb, at an angle to a
plane mirror.
• What do you notice about the pattern which is formed?

2.
• Hold a curved (concave) mirror towards the sun or a light,
with the hollow shiny side facing the sun or light.
• With your other hand can you move the piece of paper to a position
where you get a clear sharp image of the sun or light on the piece
of paper?
• Can you think what the mirror is doing to the rays of light?
(The mirror brings them together to a point - called the focus. Small
curved satellite dishes on many houses pick up TV signals from the air,
focus them to a point from where they are sent into the houses).

More Maths: The following data was taken from the NASA (American Space Agency)
website: spacemath.gsfc.nasa.gov

“The Declining Arctic Ice Cap during September” Year Ice area in
millions of
The minimum ice cap area for the Arctic during the month square kms
of September was measured using satellites.
The results for the following years were: 1980 7.9
• Draw a graph from this data, using a suitable scale. 1985 6.9
• Can you give a rough prediction of the area of ice in 1990 6.2
2020 and 2030 if the present trend continues?
1995 6.1
• Why do you think the area of ice is getting smaller?
• What do you think will be the effect on the environment 2000 6.3
if this global warming continues? 2005 5.6
2010 4.9
 INVESTIGATING
INVESTIGATING
REFRACTION REFRACTION
(Lenses and Telescopes)
(Lenses and Telescopes)

Strand/Strand unit Class level

Energy and Forces: Light 5th/6th

Learning objectives Equipment

1. Jampot, water, pencil or straw
The child shall be enabled to:
2. Small convex lenses (1 per child if possible), sheet of white
• investigate the refraction of light
paper
• explore how objects may be magnified 3. Small concave lenses (1 per child if possible), sheet of
using simple lens or magnifier white paper
investigate use of lens (LENSES WITH 5 cm. DIAMETER AND FOCAL LENGTH 20 cm.
design and make model telescopes ARE CHEAP AND SUITABLE FOR CLASSROOM USE)
4. For model telescope: 2 cardboard tubes (e.g. empty kitchen
(SESE: Science Curriculum, p.85)
rolls) – one to slide up and down inside the other; 2 convex
lenses – one short focal length (say 5cm) and one long
focal length (say 20 cm), sellotape.

Preparation
• Collection of materials.
• Children will probably have carried out an activity in a younger class about shadows, in which they learn
that light normally travels in straight lines. If they have not, then this should be done beforehand. Otherwise
it may be more difficult to understand the concept of refraction of light.

Background information
Light normally travels in straight lines (think of shadows as an absence of light).
This only happens if the light is travelling in the same substance all the time,
e.g. through air OR through glass OR through water.
However, if light goes from one medium to another (e.g. from air to glass, from
water to air, etc.) it usually bends. This bending of light when it goes from one
medium to another is called REFRACTION. It happens because light travels at
different speeds in different materials.
 INVESTIGATING REFRACTION
INVESTIGATING REFRACTION (Lenses and Telescopes)

Background information
Lenses are specially shaped pieces of glass or transparent plastic that bend the light travelling through them.
Lenses which are thicker in the middle than at the edges are called CONVEX LENSES. Lenses which are thinner
in the middle than at the edges are called CONCAVE LENSES (i.e. they cave in!). They both bend light as it passes
through them.
Convex lenses converge light that passes through them.
Concave lenses diverge light that passes through them.

Telescopes gather up light from distant objects, e.g. stars. They come in all shapes and sizes, from a small plastic
tube in a €2 shop to the very powerful giant Hubble Space Telescope which weighs several tons. Galileo made
the first telescope in 1609, using a convex lens. This is called a refracting telescope. Galileo was able to see
mountains and craters on the Moon through his telescope.
(Concave mirrors can also be used to collect distant light. Isaac Newton made the first reflecting telescope in
1688. See DPSM activity ‘Investigating Mirrors’).
Both types are still in use
Our eyes contain convex lenses which gather up light coming into them and focus it on the retina, which sends
messages to the brain via the optic nerve.

Skills Cross –curricular links

Experimenting, Observing, Analysing MATHS: Estimating, Measuring
Designing and Making

Trigger questions
What is a lens?
(Possible response: A specially shaped piece of glass or
transparent plastic that can make things look different when
you look through them).
Tell me one important difference between a lens and a
mirror. Can light pass through both?
(No, light does not pass through a mirror).
Where do you find lenses?
(Spectacles, cameras, telescopes, binoculars, microscopes etc.).
 INVESTIGATING REFRACTION
INVESTIGATING REFRACTION (Lenses and Telescopes)

Activities
1. STRAW OR PENCIL IN WATER
Put a straw or pencil in a jampot or glass of water and let it go. Look at the straw from various
angles. What do you notice? (The straw seems to bend at the surface of the water. This effect is
called refraction).

2. INVESTIGATING CONVEX LENSES

A: Near: Hold the lens close to some print, e.g. a book or
newspaper.
What do you see? (The image is large and right way up).
Now look at your friend’s eye through the convex lens.
What do you notice? This is a magnifying
glass or hand lens
B: Further away: Now hold the convex lens further away from you
(at arm’s length) and look at something in the distance. What do you notice?
(The image is upside down).

3. INVESTIGATING CONCAVE LENSES

A: Near: Hold the lens in front of some print. What do you see?
(The image is smaller and right way up)

B: Further away: Now hold the concave lens further away from you and look at
something in the distance. What do you see? (The image is still smaller and
right way up).

4. DESIGN AND MAKE A MODEL TELESCOPE

Trigger Questions:

(i) What is a telescope?

(An instrument for making faraway things look much closer.)

(ii) What is the study of stars called?

(Astronomy. It is the oldest science).

Before Galileo invented the first telescope the only way people could study the stars and the Universe was to
look at them with just their eyes.
(As telescopes are slightly tricky to make on account of the different focal lengths – which is a second level topic - it
may be a good idea for children to follow a prototype first. They can then experiment with designing their own if
the school has a variety of lenses of different focal length).
 INVESTIGATING REFRACTION
INVESTIGATING REFRACTION (Lenses and Telescopes)

Activities
Slide the narrower tube inside the wider tube. Attach the convex lens with the longer
focal length to the end of the wider tube, and the convex lens with the shorter focal
length (the bulgier one, which is called the eyepiece because it is the end which you look
through) to the end of the narrower tube.
While looking through the eyepiece, slide the inner tube back and forth slowly inside
the outer tube until you see a sharp image in the distance. What do you notice about
the image? (It is upside down).
Why is it upside down?
(Because the first lens which the light meets collects the light from far away and turns the image upside down
- remember when you held your convex lens at a distance from you. Then the lens near your eye magnifies this
image, without turning it the other way up – remember when you held the convex lens near you.)
N.B. There is quite a narrow field of view in this model telescope, but it is the principle on which a real
telescope is based.
You can experiment with the principle of this activity , without using tubes, by holding convex lenses of
different focal lengths in the air at different distances apart – with the shorter focal length lens nearer your
eye, as above. (suggested by Frances McCarthy, Blackrock Castle Observatory, Cork).
Another simple tubeless method to illustrate the principle of the
refracting telescope is to set up the following arrangement, using a
ruler, plasticine and the two convex lenses (5 cm and 20 cm focal length)
approximately 25 cm apart.

Analysis/Conclusion
What in general do you notice when you look at objects through lenses?
(The objects can look bigger or smaller, right way up or upside down, depending on the type of lens and the
distance from it).

Safety
1. Mind your eyes! Do not look directly, or through lenses, into the sun or bright lights.
2. Convex lenses can concentrate sunlight into one small area and could cause a fire on a hot day.

Follow-up activities
WATER AS A MAGNIFYING GLASS

1a) Drop of water

Equipment: Small piece of clear plastic, a page of print, water, pencil or dropper.
Activity: Place a drop of water on clear plastic (using a pencil or dropper). What shape is the
drop? Holding the plastic tight, place it over some writing. What do you notice?. Does this
remind you of any type of lens you used? (Convex). What shape is a drop of water? (Curved).
Move the plastic nearer to and then away from the print. What do you notice?
 INVESTIGATING
INVESTIGATING REFRACTIONREFRACTION
(Lenses and Telescopes)

Follow-up activities
WATER AS A MAGNIFYING GLASS

1b) Bottle of water

Equipment: clear bottle of water, page of print.
Look at a picture or writing through a clear bottle of water. What do you notice?
Does this remind you of any particular type of lens? (Convex).

Question: What shape was the water in the above two activities, to produce the magnification?
(Curved: convex).

2. “MAGIC COIN” is a fun activity, based on refraction, for children working in pairs.
Equipment: Jug or jar of water, empty carton (butter cartons work well), coin,
blutack.
Place a coin on the bottom of the butter carton and secure it with blutack.
One child looks at the coin and moves his/her head back until the coin is
JUST OUT OF VIEW. The other child pours water into the carton slowly. What
does the first child see?

The children then reverse roles. What happens?

Why do you think this happens?

Children Can:
1. Investigate spectacles: do they bulge in or out in the middle, i.e. are they convex or concave?
What happens to the print if they hold the spectacles close to some print?
2. Try to ‘catch a light’!
(a) using a convex lens: hold a convex lens towards a light (sun or artificial) and,
with a sheet of white paper in the other hand, try to focus the light (i.e. to where
it is the smallest and brightest) to a sharp point onto the paper, by moving
either the paper or lens.
Convex lens
MATHS: (i) Estimate the distance between the lens and the paper.
(ii) (working in pairs) measure the distance between the lens and
the paper (this distance is called the ‘focal length’, which is in the
second level curriculum).
(b) using a concave lens (This is not possible because a concave lens bends light in
the other direction, i.e. it diverges the light). Concave lens

3. Try to predict which type of lens is contained in their eyes, to gather up light coming into them and focus
it on the retina (the part of the eye which tells the brain what it sees).
Shut their eyes and gently feel the outside of their eyelids with their clean fingers (CAREFUL! GENTLY!).
What type of lens do they feel?
 INVESTIGATING REFRACTION
INVESTIGATING REFRACTION (Lenses and Telescopes)

Did You Know?

1. Short-sighted people wear spectacles which have lenses that are thinner in the
middle, i.e. concave.
Long-sighted people wear convex lenses. The lenses bend the light to form a sharp
image on the retina (the part of the eye that sees).

2. Water can look a lot shallower than it actually is, because of refraction. Because
light which is reflected off say a fish in water, bends when it reaches the surface,
your eye assumes light travels in straight lines and sees the fish nearer the
surface than it actually is.

Have you noticed that when you paddle in water your legs appear to be shorter
than their actual length? (This is for the same reason).

SAFETY in the water! So refraction is important to think about before you jump
into water – it might be much deeper than you think!

3. A fresnel lens (named after a Frenchman called Fresnel, who

invented it) is a special type of convex lens – a very powerful one,
which is used in lighthouses to send out extra strong beams.
(See DPSM activity ‘Make a Lighthouse’ – using an ordinary bulb in
glass).

Useful Websites:
For more about telescopes have a look at http://www.kidsastronomy.com/telescopes.htm

Another activity, using just one convex lens, can be found at

https://www.exploratorium.edu/science_explorer/pictures_from_light.html

At www.bco.ie read about a partnership between Blackrock Castle Observatory, Cork and a primary school in
the San Francisco Bay area, America, where the first robotic telescope project will be sited.
DPSM/ESERO
Framework for Inquiry - Promoting Inclusion
When planning science activities for students with Special Educational Needs (SEN), a number of issues need to be considered. Careful planning
for inclusion using the framework for inquiry should aim to engage students in science with real purpose. Potential areas of difficulty are
identified below along with suggested strategies. This list is not exhaustive, further strategies are available in the Guidelines for Teachers of
Students with General Learning Disabilities (NCCA, 2007).

ENGAGE
POTENTIAL AREA OF DIFFICULTY STRATEGIES

Delayed language development/poor • Teach the language of science demonstrating meaning and/or using visual aids (material,
vocabulary/concepts property, strong, weak, textured, dimpled, absorbent, force, gravity).
• Have the student demonstrate scientific phenomena, for example gravity —using ‘give me, show
me, make me,’ as much as possible.
• Assist the student in expressing ideas through scaffolding, verbalising a demonstration,
modelling.
• Use outdoor play to develop concepts.

INVESTIGATE
POTENTIAL AREA OF DIFFICULTY STRATEGIES

Fear of failure/poor self-esteem/fear • Model the speculation of a range of answers/ideas.

of taking risks • Repeat and record suggestions from the students and refer back to them.

Understanding Time and Chronology • Practice recording the passing of time, establish classroom routines that draw the students’
attention to the measurement of time.
• Teach and practice the language of time.

Fine/Gross Motor Difficulties • Allow time to practice handling new equipment.

• Allow additional time for drawing diagrams, making models etc.
• Give students the option to explain work orally or in another format.

Short Term Memory • Provide the student with visual clues/symbols which can be used to remind him/her of various
stages of the investigation.

TAKE THE NEXT STEP

POTENTIAL AREA OF DIFFICULTY STRATEGIES

Developing Ideas • Keep ideas as simple as possible, use visuals as a reminder of earlier ideas.
• Discuss ideas with the whole group.
• Repeat and record suggestions from students and refer back to them.
• Encourage work in small group and in pairs.

Communicating Ideas • Ask students to describe observations verbally or nonverbally using an increasing vocabulary.
• Display findings from investigations; sing, do drawings or take pictures.
• Use ICT: simple written or word-processed accounts taking photographs, making video
recordings of an investigation.

REFLECTION
• Did I take into account the individual learning needs of my students with SEN? What differentiation strategies worked well?
• Did I ensure that the lesson content was clear and that the materials used were appropriate?
• Was I aware of the pace at which students worked and the physical effort required?
• Are there cross curriculum opportunities here?
• Are the students moving on with their skills? Did the students enjoy the activity?

More strategies, resources and support available at www.sess.ie

Curriculum Links
Science Rising: Light
English / Irish
• Read about the work of Irish scientists and their contribution to scientific knowledge http://
sciencerising.sfi.ie/
• Start a science blog for Science Week with pictures of your scientific investigations and reflections
on your findings.
• Keep a Science Week diary.
• Write instructions for one of your investigations into light.

PE
• Apply what we learned about the effect of angles. Bouncing balls at different angles. How angles
are important for different sports – basketball, tennis, football.

SPHE
• Myself and the wider world: Look at the contribution of scientists to our world. How have inventions
for space exploration influenced our daily lives?

SESE Geography
• Planet Earth in Space: How does the light from the sun reach Earth? Night and day, seasons.
• Human Environments: Look at how the reflection of light and satellite technology contribute to
transport and communications.
• People at Work: The work of scientists. Look at how scientists do their research, often when they do
not know the answers to the questions they are asking. How do they confirm their findings?

SESE History
• Early People and Ancient Societies: Find out about the building of Newgrange and how the builders
used their understanding of light to align the entrance of the tomb.
• Traders, explorers and colonisers from Europe: The invention of the telescope had a significant bear-
ing on the age of exploration. What other scientific instruments help the early explorers to discover
new lands?
Science Foundation Ireland
Wilton Park House
Wilton Place
Dublin 2
Ireland
t: +353 1 6073184
[email protected]