Glow in the Dark

Students will experiment with glow in the dark to order the energy levels of color.

1. What do you know about how glow in the dark stars (or other objects) work?
2. After students share their ideas, first with a partner, then with the class, have them write an answer in their student guides.
3. Tell students that the experiment they are about to do will help them understand how glow in the dark works.

Support students getting all materials ready to use.

Make sure students are put into intentional groups.

Students will complete the experiment using the Student Guide where we have outlined the experiment for students and along the way, they record results and answer questions.

In the student guide, they will look at their data to describe which filters allowed each color through.

Continue to listen in on each group’s discussion, answer as few questions as possible. Even if a group is off a little, they will have a chance to work out these stuck points later.

Suggested STEP UP Everyday Actions to incorporate into activity

• When pairing students, try to have male/female partners and invite female students to share their ideas first
• As you put students into groups, consider having female or minority students take the leadership role.
• Take note of female participation. If they seem to be taking direction and following along, elevate their voice by asking them a question about their experiment.

Consider using white boards so students have time to work through their ideas and brainstorms before saying them out loud.

As students experiment, roam around the room to listen in on discussion and notice experiment techniques. If needed, stop the class and call over to a certain group that has hit on an important concept.

Consider using the RIP protocol (Research, Instruct, Plan) for lab group visits and conferring.

Consider culturally responsive tools and strategies and/or open ended reflection questions to help push student thinking, evidence tracking, and connections to their lives.

Try the 4 quadrants protocol to support students exploring the questions in the student guide.

1. Have each group create an answer to this phenomenon.
2. Have a student from each small group or table read the four (or so, depending on your class size) statements aloud and place the paper with the statements on it in the middle of the table.
3. Going in turn, have each student state which of the four statements they most agree with and why.
4. No one may interrupt whichever student is speaking.
5. When the speaker is finished, he or she places a BINGO chip on the statement they most agree with.
6. Going in turn, each of the other three team members states their beliefs and places a BINGO chip.
7. As a whole room, tally how many chips there are for each statement and ask students to clarify their thinking to each other. Use talk moves from Michaels and O’Connor’s Talk Science Primer to ask students to elaborate and clarify their thinking. If needed, each student can write his or her ideas at the end of class in their science journal.

After students have had a chance to discuss key ideas from the lesson, you can now clarify and give concise definitions to the forces they experimented with.