St. Peter's Primary Bray Blog

Light and Materials

3^rd class have been learning all about light this month! First we chatted about some different light sources. We brainstormed loads of different sources of light in our groups and discussed how important light is in our lives.

Ms. Seery then told us about a problem she was having… Her two boys like to read when they go to bed, but they keep waking each other up because their torches are too bright! She asked us to help her by designing lamp shades so that everyone in her house could get some sleep and still read!

We discussed the different kinds of materials lamp shades are made of. One clever boy suggested that translucent materials make great lamp shades because they let some light through without having a glare and that maybe that would help! The whole class thought that was a great idea. We decided to test lots of different materials to see which would make the best lamp shade.

We chose a few different materials- felt, paper, card, clear plastic and tissue paper. We wondered how we could test them? Maybe by holding each of them up to the window? K suggest the light from the whiteboard would be better because it always stayed the same, whereas the sunlight might change depending on the weather. This was great scientific thinking and we were so impressed!

We predicted which materials would be translucent, opaque and transparent- then it was time to test.

The next day we were excited to start making our shades. We experimented with lots of different 3d shapes. L thought a cone was a good shape for a shade as it would spread the light out evenly over the book. C thought we should use a cuboid and cut some symmetrical holes in it. We are learning about symmetry at the moment in maths so it was great to be able to use this in our science work.

We worked really hard making our lamp shades- we tested and retested to make sure they were fit for purpose. We discovered that lamp shades need to be strong, fire-proof and self-holding. Some of us added stands to our designs.

We were so proud of our work! Some of us want to bring them home so we can read at night too without waking up our siblings. Ms. Seery was delighted that she has some fab new lampshades for her house!