Refraction Activities
Station 1: Shine your light beam through the glass block at an angle. Draw what you can see in the
box below. Make sure you label the normal, the angle of incidence and angle of refraction.
Q1) When the light ray entered the transparent block did it move closer to the normal or away from
the normal?
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Q2) When the light ray left the transparent block did it move closer to the normal or away from the
normal?
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Extra challenge: Explain why this happened using the word density.
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Station 2: For each angle of incidence measure the angle of refraction.
Extra challenge: Is the light travelling faster in air or glass? Why?
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Station 3: Look at the resources on your table. What are the main differences between reflection and
refraction?
Refraction
Reflection
How are the angles of
reflection and refraction
different?
When do they occur?
Extra challenge: How are reflection and refraction similar?
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Station 4: Shine the laser pointer through the water.
Describe what happens and draw a diagram:
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Extra challenge: Fill in the blanks:
When the light ray passes from a less dense medium (for example ……………..)
into a more dense medium (for example ………………….) then the light ray will slow down, which
causes it to bend ………………………the normal.
Station 5: Use the pictures to make a mind map of where refraction might happen in real life.
Examples of
refraction