Fourth grade scientists have been conducting experiments to explore how sound waves and light waves travel. In the light lab, students started in partnerships, reflecting light rays off of mirrors. One partner held the flashlight while the other partner held a mirror. The student with the mirror had to reflect the light from the flashlight to a point of their choosing in the classroom. Partners then switched roles and materials. After accomplishing the task, partnerships were combined into groups of four. They had to work as a team to reflect the light to one anther. One teammate held the flashlight and aimed it at another teammate’s mirror. That classmate had to reflect it to another classmate in the group, until everyone was was contributing to reflecting the light around the circle. Once this task was accomplished, students were put into increasingly larger groups. These larger groups had the same task of having to work together and communicate in order to reflect the light off of every teammate’s mirror. Some students conducted their own experiments, investigating how light acts when reflected off mirrors of various angles and various constructions of mirrors. Students concluded that though light travels in waves, it appears to travel linearly.

In the sound lab, students listened to echos, felt their vocal chords vibrate, and constructed purposeful contraptions out of a small styrofoam cup, a paperclip, and yarn. Students experimented with listening and speaking while the cup muffled their voice or covered their ears. Students noticed the effect the tightness of the string had on sending sound waves. Students came to the conclusion that sound waves are vibrations that travel through air (or a substance) and bounce into a person’s ear.