Worksheet: Light and shadows (Years 3 and 6)

Name or group: ____ Date: ______

Curriculum (England, Year 3 and Year 6 Light):

• we need light to see things, and dark is the absence of light,
• an opaque object that blocks the light makes a shadow,
• the size of a shadow changes,
• light travels in straight lines, so a shadow has the same shape as the object.

In SpaceWise: Grown-ups > Start a lesson > Year 6 Light (or Year 3 Light). Choose the mission "Long shadows on the Moon" or the Science Lab "Shadow stick".

Never look straight at the real Sun, even with dark glasses.

Part 1: Shadows on the Moon (mission "Long shadows on the Moon")

1. Where is the Sun in the Moon's sky: high up or low down near the horizon? __

2. Are the shadows long or short? __

3. Draw a rock, the Sun and the rock's shadow. Draw the light as straight lines.

4. The sky on the Moon is black even in daytime. Why? __________

Part 2: The shadow stick (Science Lab "Shadow stick")

5. Predict first. At midday, is the stick's shadow at its longest or its shortest? __

6. Speed up time. Write the length of the shadow at three times of day.

7. Finish the sentence: "The Sun is __ in the sky, so the shadow is at its longest."

8. Which way does the shadow point: towards the Sun or away from it? __

Part 3: Think and talk

9. Why does a shadow have the same shape as the object that makes it? __________

Answers for the teacher

1. What the app shows. Long shadows come from a Sun low near the horizon.
2. Long.
3. Straight lines from the Sun pass the top of the rock and reach the ground behind it. The shadow is on the side away from the Sun.
4. The Moon has no air to scatter the sunlight, so the sky stays black.
5. Shortest.
6. The values the app shows. The midday shadow is the shortest.
7. "low" (early morning and late afternoon).
8. Away from the Sun.
9. Light travels in straight lines, so the object blocks the light in its own outline.

Source: National Curriculum in England: science programmes of study (GOV.UK).