Our grade 8 science classes boarded the buses and travelled to Laser City for a field experience in their Light and Optics unit. While there, the facilitators shared interactive experiences with lasers uncovering many of the curricular objectives for the unit. Students were able to use lasers to observe and experience what happens to light when it is reflected, transmitted and absorbed by different materials, including fog.

After the experiments, students also got to play a few rounds of Laser Tag for their daily physical activity.

Curricular Outcomes relevant to the experience were:

Unit C: Lights and Optical Systems
– Different sources of light
– Investigate light beams and identify phenomena that provide evidence of the nature of light (e.g., what happens when viewing the passage of light through foggy air)
– Investigate how light is reflected, transmitted, and absorbed by different materials
– – Describe differences in the optical properties of various materials
– – Compare light absorption of different materials  
– – Identify materials that transmit light    
– – Distinguish between clear and translucent materials    
– – Identify materials that will reflect a beam of light as a coherent beam