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Playing with Light was developed by Scitech, Perth, Australia.
Images: Source – Scitech, Perth.
Prepared by
Bronwyn Quint
Program Coordinator Physical Science
Scienceworks
Bookings
(03) 9392 4819 weekdays.
Copyright
Teachers may photocopy this
kit for educational purposes.
http:// http://museumvictoria.com.au/scienceworks/education/education-programs/playing-with-light/
Contents
Teacher Notes
Introduction
3
Key messages
4
Playing with Light exhibition description
5
Exhibition map
13
Victorian Curriculum Relevance
14
Resources
22
Student Activities
Kaleidoscope
17
Colour Mixing
17
See in Slow Motion
17
Bendy Mirror
18
See with a Spectroscope
18
Video Challenge
20
Web Search
21
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Teacher Notes
Introduction
LIGHT is fundamental to our everyday lives. With so many applications from the
apparent simplicity of vision, the beauty of rainbows or paintings, to the high tech
world of fibre optic communication, holographic security and laser surgery, light
provides the basis for much of our technology and our view of the world.
PLAY is a means to ignite the imagination for people of all ages. Open ended and
without instruction, it offers the opportunity for exploration and creativity, but most
importantly, it enables learning through experimentation, a key tenet of the scientific
process.
In drawing together PLAY and LIGHT, Scitech has created an exhibition experience
like no other. Using basic physics principles, innovative interactive experiences and
a sense of fun, Playing with Light offers the opportunity to explore our world and
how it is illuminated through 22 exhibits with a multitude of outcomes.
Physics, and in particular optics, is a subject that is difficult to demonstrate in the
classroom without specialist equipment. This exhibition provides the opportunity to
engage both primary and secondary school students. The subject material has very
close links to the science curriculum, providing high quality teaching and learning
opportunities outside the classroom for visiting groups.
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Teacher Notes
Playing with Light
Key messages
1. Light plays a vital role in our daily lives
Our vision relies on light and the optics of the eye. Rainbows and sunsets are
beautiful examples of light phenomena in nature, while practical applications include
mirrors, lenses, cameras, telescopes and microscopes. Combined with engineering
and other scientific fields, optics has led to the development of lasers, holography,
fibre optics and more. Through its use in a range of applications, such as medicine,
communications and security, light provides great benefits to society.
2. Science helps us to describe and explain the behaviour of light
and to discover even more
Science helps us to describe and explain natural light phenomena, such as
reflection, refraction and adsorption, to make sense of the world around us. Ongoing
scientific research has led to the progressively deeper understanding of the nature
of light and driven the development of ever more sophisticated technology in optics
and other scientific fields.
3. Play and experimentation are important for learning
Albert Einstein said that “Play is the highest form of research”. Play leads to the
development of skills in observation, experimentation and the testing of ideas. The
range of open ended, interactive exhibits provides opportunities for visitors to ask
questions, investigate and draw conclusions from their own experiments,
encouraging and enabling them to improve their own scientific literacy.
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Teacher Notes
Playing with Light
Exhibition description
Entry
Visitors enter the exhibition through an interactive tunnel containing over 20,000
LEDs that switch on and off in response to a visitor’s movements.
Laser dodge
Visitors are challenged to reach their next destination without activating an alarm by
successfully dodging a series of laser beams that are blocking their path. This
whole-body, multi-user exhibit demonstrates the properties of laser light and
highlights its use in security applications.
Sticky light
Multiple users can observe and creatively interact
with a beam of light as it traces the edge of surfaces
placed on the table by the user, such as shapes or
even the hands of the user. This exhibit showcases
the use of lasers for applications such as industrial
welding.
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Teacher Notes
Kaleidoscope
The kaleidoscope exhibit takes visitors
into a world of many reflections. A
triangle arrangement of three large
mirrors produces multiple images of
the one or more visitors standing
inside. This exhibit gives insight into
the workings of a toy kaleidoscope.
Bendy mirror
Visitors can make themselves shorter, taller, thinner,
wider, and more with our adjustable bendy mirror.
This multi-user exhibit allows visitors to explore how
the shape of the mirror affects the size and
orientation of the image they see. The exhibit
highlights the use of adaptive optics technology in
astronomy and other applications.
Colour shadows
Multiple users can stand, wave, jump or dance in front of a large screen and
observe their ‘coloured shadows’. This exhibit demonstrates that three primary
colours can be combined to give white light and reveals what happens when one or
more of these colours are blocked.
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Teacher Notes
Make a telescope
Visitors build a simple telescope and use it to see
tiny pictures and messages on the other side of the
exhibition. By varying the lenses used and the
distance between them they can alter the magnifying
power of the telescope and learn more about how
telescopes work.
Light lab
This multi-user exhibit allows visitors to experiment
freely with a range of optical components such as
lenses, mirrors and prisms using a central array of
white and coloured light beams. This exhibit
reinforces concepts explored by other exhibits and
encourages deeper experimentation. Graphics
highlight the importance of scientific research in light
and other fields.
Change your view
The lens and filter effects wheel demonstrates how optical components can change
the way we see our world. Visitors can rotate one of two large wheels to select a
lens, filter or combination to peer through and explore its effect on light.
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Teacher Notes
Computer vision
Visitors observing their own shadow
on a screen will notice their shadow
will come to life! This multi-user exhibit
showcases impressive computer
vision technology, providing visitors
with a full body, creative interactive
experience. Graphics highlight the use
of computer vision in surveillance and
medical applications.
Paint with infrared
This high-tech exhibit allows visitors to draw on a projector screen using a virtual
paint brush and paint bucket. This multi-user exhibit offers a creative, colourful
experience and demonstrates infrared detection technology in action. Graphics
explain infrared light and highlight a range of applications.
Colour mixing
Visitors can manipulate a red, green and blue light
source to produce colourful overlapping patterns
and explore primary colour mixing. Graphics explain
the difference between different types of colour
mixing and highlight applications of each.
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Teacher Notes
See with a spectroscope
Visitors can use a spectroscope to examine a number of different light sources and
discover the differences in their spectra. Graphics highlight different types of spectra
and applications of spectroscopy.
Light investigation
Visitors manipulate laser beams to explore the behaviour of light as it travels from
one material to another. The exhibit allows users to investigate various properties of
light, such as reflection, refraction and total internal reflection of light.
Guiding light
Visitors can make light bounce down a stream of
water, demonstrating total internal reflection.
Depending on the curvature of the stream of water,
which the user can vary, light will either partially
escape or be completely trapped.
Fibre optic transmission
This exhibit allows visitors to look through an optical fibre cable and see an image,
such as the room around them or their own hand, etc. The optical fibres inside the
cable are spread out and displayed for the visitors to see as they experiment. This
demonstrates fibre optic transmission of data.
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Teacher Notes
Freeze your shadow
Visitors stand, wave, jump, dance in
front of a screen and experience a
flash of light. Their shadows appear
frozen on the screen behind them
before slowly fading away. This multiuser, full body exhibit allows visitors to
explore phosphorescence. Visitors can
also draw on the screen using a UV
wand.
See in slow motion
Visitors use a strobe light to examine a piece of
machinery with components moving at high speed.
By varying the frequency of the flashes of light from
the strobe they can make some of the components
appear to slow, stop or even move backwards. The
exhibit highlights the use of strobe lights in industrial
applications.
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Teacher Notes
Hologram
Holograms are photographic images that appear to be 3-dimensional when viewed
under illumination. Visitors can investigate the appearance of two holograms as they
view them from different positions and even peer through them. Graphics highlight a
range of holographic applications.
Concave reflections
Visitors will be amazed with this exhibit that uses
reflection to allow them to ‘shake their own hand’. As
they reach into a large black dome, a ‘spooky’
inverted image of their hand appears to reach right
out back at them. Visitors can investigate the
different images formed at different positions within
the dome. The exhibit allows visitors to explore the
range of images that that can be produced by a
concave mirror.
Polarised light
Visitors can explore what happens when polarised
light passes through a variety of objects followed by
a polarising filter. They can rotate the polarising filter
and objects and investigate the effect on the colours
and patterns seen. Graphics highlight applications
of polarised materials.
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Teacher Notes
Information kiosks
LIGHT: This touch-screen kiosk provides visitors
with information on what light is, how visible light
allows us to see things, and applications of other
types of light, including light that we can’t see such
as infrared and UV.
LASERS: This touch-screen kiosk provides visitors
with information on what a laser is, how lasers work
and how they are used all around us in our daily
lives.
COLOUR: This touch-screen kiosk provides visitors with information on how we
perceive colour and explains the difference between colour mixing with light and
colour mixing with paint, highlighting applications in our daily lives.
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Teacher Notes
Exhibition map
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Teacher Notes
Victorian Curriculum Relevance
Level 4
Domain
Discipline-based
Learning
Science

Students explain change in terms of cause and effect.
They identify the characteristics of physical and chemical
changes.

Interdisciplinary Learning
ICT
Physical, personal
and social learning
Dimensions, standards or learning focus
 Students develop a systematic knowledge of science and
science concepts drawn from traditional and emerging
sciences.
Students use everyday examples to illustrate the
transforming and transferring of energy.
ICT for visualising thinking
 Students apply ICT tools and techniques to represent and
explore processes, patterns and cause-and-effect
relationships.
 Students review their stored thinking strategies in order to
identify similarities and differences in their thinking
patterns. They document in their bank of digital evidence
how these visualising thinking strategies help them to
understand concepts and relationships.
ICT for creating
 Students safely and independently use a range of skills,
procedures, equipment and functions to process different
data types and produce accurate and suitably formatted
products to suit different purposes and audiences.
Interpersonal
Development
Working in teams
 Students work effectively in different teams and take on a
variety of roles to complete tasks of varying length and
complexity. They work cooperatively to allocate tasks and
develop timelines. Students accept responsibility for their
role and tasks. They explain the benefits of working in a
team. They provide feedback to others and evaluate their
own and the team’s performance.
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Teacher Notes
Level 5
Discipline-based
Learning
Domain
Science

Interdisciplinary Learning
ICT
Physical, personal
and social learning
Dimensions, standards or learning focus
 Students use the particle model to explain structure and
properties of matter.
Students use everyday examples of machines, tools and
appliances to show how the thermodynamic model
describes energy and change, and force and motion.
ICT for visualising thinking
 Students use a range of data types, including sound and
still and moving images, to record the decisions made and
actions taken when developing new understanding and
problem solving. They evaluate the strengths and
weaknesses of their decisions and actions in the given
situations.
ICT for communicating
 Students select the most appropriate search engines to
locate information on websites. They use complex search
strategies to refine their searches. They judge the integrity
of the located information based on its credibility,
accuracy, reliability and comprehensiveness.
Interpersonal
Development
Working in teams
 Students accept responsibility as a team member and
support other members to share information, explore the
ideas of others, and work cooperatively to achieve a
shared purpose within a realistic timeframe. They reflect
on individual and team outcomes and act to improve their
own and the team’s performance.
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Teacher Notes
Level 6
Discipline-based
Learning
Domain
Science
Physical, personal
and social learning
Interdisciplinary Learning
ICT
Dimensions, standards or learning focus
 Students formulate their own hypotheses and plan and
conduct investigations in order to prove or disprove them.
ICT for visualising thinking
 Students use a range of ICT tools and data types to
visualise their thinking strategies when solving problems
and developing new understanding. They use visualising
thinking tools and apply ICT techniques to support causal
reasoning and to model and describe the dynamic
relationship between variable and constant data values to
test hypotheses.
ICT for communicating
 At Level 6, students exchange ideas and considered
opinions with others through online forums and websites.
Students apply techniques to locate more precise
information from websites, including searching general
and specialised directories, and applying proximity
operators.
Interpersonal
Development
Working in teams
 Students work collaboratively, negotiate roles and
delegate tasks to complete complex tasks in teams.
Working with the strengths of a team they achieve agreed
goals within set timeframes. Students describe how they
respect and build on the ideas and opinions of team
members and clearly articulate or record their reflections
on the effectiveness of learning in a team. They develop
and implement strategies for improving their contributions
to achieving the team goals
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Student Activity
Playing with Light exhibition
1.
Kaleidoscope
How many reflections can you see? Do all the reflections look the same? How
many mirrors are there in the kaleidoscope?
2.
Colour Mixing
Using the three coloured lights - red, blue and green, how many other colours can
you make? What are the new colours?
Colour 1
3.
Colour 2
Colour 3
Colour made
See in slow motion
What is the strobe flash rate that makes the pendulum appear to stop?
_____________________________________________________
What is the equivalent speed?
____________________________________ Rotations per minute
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Student Activity
Playing with Light exhibition
4.
Bendy Mirror
What happens to your reflection when the mirror is:
Convex Horizontally
_____________________________________________________________________
Convex Vertically
_____________________________________________________________________
Concave Horizontally
_____________________________________________________________________
Concave Vertically
_____________________________________________________________________
Ripple Horizontally
_____________________________________________________________________
Ripple Vertically
_____________________________________________________________________
5.
See with a Spectroscope
Using the Spectroscope, what do you see when you look at the different lamps? Are
the images the same for all the lamps or different? If they are different, how are they
different?
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
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Student Activity
Playing with Light exhibition
Using coloured pencils draw the spectrum you see for each lamp.
Sodium Lamp
6.
7.
Halogen Lamp
Compact Fluorescent Lamp
Light Emitting Diode (LED)
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Student Activity
Playing with Light exhibition
Video challenge
Suitable for students in years 5 – 9.
Work in groups to produce a short video to explain one of the concepts
demonstrated in the Playing with Light exhibition.
Your Challenge:
Can you record video footage in the Playing with Light exhibition that demonstrates
the following concepts:
 Reflection
 Refraction
 Colour mixing
 Total Internal Reflection
 Light travels in straight lines
 Can you find another concept to demonstrate?
Your group will need to have a director, cameraman and actor or maybe two.
Decide on the concept you are going to explore in the exhibition.
Record some footage of your interactions in the exhibition to demonstrate the
concept.
Take the footage back to school to edit and use for follow up and further
investigations.
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Student Activity
Playing with Light exhibition
Web Search
Use the internet to investigate one of the concepts explored in the Playing with Light
exhibition.
Possible things to include in your presentation are:
 links to web sites with applets exploring the concept
 diagrams showing the concept ideas
 video footage taken in the exhibition
 make sure you include all your references to the pages you have used!
 anything else that is relevant to the concept you have chosen.
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Resources
Websites
1 ATE project for Physics - Applets
http://www.physicsworkshops.org/ASIP/Applets.htm
2 The Applet Collection
http://www.lon-capa.org/~mmp/applist/applets.htm
3 The fundamentals of Optics
http://www.play-hookey.com/optics/
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