As part of our Light & Sound Expedition, students explore properties of light by creating moving scenes with objects in light boxes, which we built with instructions from the Tinkering Studio. This guide focuses on the inquiry model used in classes, rather than a strict step-by-step process.

Students discover that materials interact with light differently: some materials allow light to pass, others block light entirely; some things reflect or refract, while others focus light beams. Students play with changing the size of shadows and make observations about reflections, refraction, symmetry, and motion.

Shadow Puppet plays, an extension of Light Play, are a perfect project for interdisciplinary learning. As students demonstrate mastery of properties of light, they can also explore their own culture, or act out a scene from a book or a moment in history, integrating with language arts or social studies.