Curated OER
Colonizing the Stars
Young scholars compare and contrast the size, composition and surface features of the nine planets of our solar system with the possible sizes and compositions of extra -solar planets.
Science Struck
Science Struck: How Does Light Travel Through Space and Other Media?
A detailed discussion of the nature of light, how it can travel through a vacuum, and how the speed of light is affected when light travels through a medium.
E-learning for Kids
E Learning for Kids: Science: Netherlands: How Does Light Travel?
Sara and Finn are finding out how light travels. Join them, and learn the nature of light energy.
Science Buddies
Science Buddies: How Does the Intensity of Light Change With Distance?
How far would you have to travel so that the light of the full sun would provide "daylight" no brighter than twilight on Earth? This project describes a method to verify the inverse square law: how light, sound, electrical signals, and...
Open Ed
Open Ed Sci: 6.1 Light & Matter
How does a one-way mirror work? Though most everyone knows that one-way mirrors exist, having students model how they work turns out to be a very effective way to develop their thinking about how visible light travels and how we see...
University of Minnesota
University of Minnesota: Refraction of Light
This page is a continuation of a tutorial about light reflection and refraction. It contains a diagram and suggestions on how to derive Snell's Law, which governs the refraction of light in a medium. For background to this derivation,...
Science Buddies
Science Buddies: How Does Color Affect Heating by Absorption of Light?
Light is an example of an electromagnetic wave. Electromagnetic waves can travel through the vacuum of interstellar space. They do not depend on an external medium-unlike a mechanical wave such as a sound wave which must travel through...
University of Minnesota
University of Minnesota: How Does Light Travel?
Contains a four step procedure to deriving the law of reflection using algebra, Fermat's principle, and calculus (simple derivatives). This is good for an in-class theoretical exercise.
Science Education Resource Center at Carleton College
Serc: Investigating Light Properties
Students will investigate how light travels and what it does when it hits an object. Light sources will be used to represent a beam of light. Students will direct the beam toward various objects and materials. Through observations...
Mocomi & Anibrain Digital Technologies
Mocomi: What Is the Speed of Light?
How fast does light travel? How does its speed change when it travels through different media? Learn how scientists calculate the speed of light and some interesting facts.
Optical Society
Optical Society of America: Optics for Kids: Make a Light Fountain
A simple experiment that demonstrates the concept of total internal reflection, and shows how light can travel around curves and corners, as it does in fiber-optic cables. Accompanied by an explanation of what's happening.
TED Talks
Ted: Ted Ed: Sunlight Is Way Older Than You Think
It takes light a zippy eight minutes to reach Earth from the surface of the Sun. But how long does it take that same light to travel from the Sun's core to its surface? Oddly enough, the answer is many thousands of years. Sten Odenwald...