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Grade 1. In 10 lessons over 13 class sessions, students gather evidence to help them explain how light can help animals, including humans, survive. Module includes a teacher guide, 16 Smithsonian Science Stories student readers, teacher and student access to digital resources on CarolinaScienceOnline.com, and enough materials for 32 students to use 3 times.

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Grade 1. Module Highlights: In 10 lessons over 13 class sessions, students gather evidence to help them explain how light can help animals, including humans, survive. They begin by considering how we can see things in dark places such as caves and investigate whether certain objects are light sources. Students plan and carry out investigations about how a beam of light interacts with transparent, translucent, and opaque materials, constructing explanations of what they observed, then describe the formation of shadows and reflection of light. They read about the structures of some animals that use light to help them survive, the structures that make up lighthouses, and the engineering problems that lighthouses are designed to solve. Students design a solution to the problem of student visibility on the way to and from school, mimicking ways that some animals reflect light. In the end-of-module science challenge, students investigate the effects of light hitting new materials to explain how one material could help people find an exit door in an emergency, helping them survive.

This module includes a teacher guide, 16 Smithsonian Science Stories student readers, and enough materials for 32 students to use 3 times.

Student Readers Available HERE

Alignment to the Next Generation Science Standards®
Performance Expectations

• 1-PS4-2: Make observations to construct an evidence-based account that objects in darkness can be seen only when illuminated.
• 1-PS4-3: Plan and conduct investigations to determine the effect of placing objects made with different materials in the path of a beam of light.
• 1-LS1-1: Use materials to design a solution to a human problem by mimicking how plants and/or animals use their external parts to help them survive, grow, and meet their needs.
• K-2-ETS1-1: Ask questions, make observations, and gather information about a situation people want to change to define a simple problem that can be solved through the development of a new or improved object or tool.

Disciplinary Core Ideas
PS4.B: Electromagnetic Radiation

• Objects can be seen if light is available to illuminate them or if they give off their own light.
• Some materials allow light to pass through them, others allow only some light through, and others block all the light and create a dark shadow on any surface beyond them, where the light cannot reach. Mirrors can be used to redirect a light beam.

LS1.A: Structure and Function

• All organisms have external parts. Different animals use their body parts in different ways to see, hear, grasp objects, protect themselves, move from place to place, and seek, find, and take in food, water, and air. Plants also have different parts (roots, stems, leaves, flowers, fruits) that help them survive and grow.

LS1.D: Information Processing

• Animals have body parts that capture and convey different kinds of information needed for growth and survival. Animals respond to these inputs with behaviors that help them survive. Plants also respond to some external inputs.

ETS1.A: Defining and Delimiting Engineering Problems

• A situation that people want to change or create can be approached as a problem to be solved through engineering.
• Asking questions, making observations, and gathering information are helpful in thinking about problems.
• Before beginning to design a solution, it is important to clearly understand the problem.

Science and Engineering Practices
Focal:

• Defining problems
• Planning and carrying out investigations
• Constructing explanations
• Obtaining, evaluating, and communicating information

Supporting:

• Asking questions
• Developing and using models
• Analyzing and interpreting data
• Designing solutions

Crosscutting Concepts
Focal:

• Patterns
• Cause and effect
• Structure and function

Common Core State Standards
English Language Arts Connections
Reading: Informational Text:

• Craft and structure (RI.1.4, RI.1.5)
• Key ideas and details (RI.1.1, RI.1.2, RI.1.3)
• Integration of knowledge and ideas (RI.1.7)

Speaking and Listening:

• Comprehension and collaboration (SL.1.1, SL.1.2)
• Presentation of knowledge and ideas (SL.1.5)

Language:

• Vocabulary acquisition and use (L.1.4, L.1.6)

Concepts and Practices Storyline
Lesson Summaries
Lesson 1: It’s Dark in Here
Objects are only visible if they give off their own light or if an external light shines on them.
Students use a computer simulation to investigate whether different objects cause light to shine in a simulated dark setting.
Lesson 2: Shining Light on Danger
Light can be used to warn of danger.
Students obtain information from a text about problems faced by ships at sea and how light and lighthouse structures can be used as a warning.
Lesson 3: Shining Through
Light interacts with different materials in different ways.
Students work collaboratively to plan and carry out an investigation into how different materials placed in a beam of light cause different effects.
Lesson 4: The Shadow Effect
Opaque objects in a beam of light cause shadows. Shadow size and shape can be changed.
Students analyze patterns in investigation data to explain how the position and location of objects in a beam of light affect shadow shape and size.
Lesson 5: Bouncing Around
Light interacts with different materials in predictable ways.
Students use patterns in data to construct an evidence-based explanation of what results when light hits opaque, translucent, transparent, and reflective materials.
Lesson 6: Hide! Escape! Survive!
Animals have external structures that interact with light to help them survive.
Students obtain information from a text to explain how some external animal structures interact with light to help the animals survive.
Lesson 7: Reflecting on Safety
Interactions between light and materials can be used to keep people safe.
Students consider the problem of how to be seen in the dark and determine that the effects of light interacting with reflective materials can be part of a designed solution.
Lesson 8: Caution—School Students
Humans can design solutions by mimicking animals.
Students mimic animal use of reflective structures as they design a solution to the human problem of being visible outside when drivers have their lights on.
Science Challenge
Lesson 9: Emergency Escape Part 1
Light can interact with a material to make an object visible.
Students investigate how light interacts with new materials and explain how the effects could be used to make a path to safety visible in a dark room.
Lesson 10: Emergency Escape Part 2
Appropriate materials can be selected to make an exit door path visible.
Students explain the need to make the pathway to a door visible in a dark room and how a material from their investigation can serve the function of making the pathway to safety visible.

*Next Generation Science Standards® is a registered trademark of WestEd. Neither WestEd nor the lead states and partners that developed the Next Generation Science Standards were involved in the production of this product, and do not endorse it.