7ο Δημοτικό Πύργου

Let there be light

An English project

Title: ?Let there be light?

Class: 6th

Teachers responsible for the project: Τσουρούλα Χριστίνα and Σμυρνή Νέλλη

?The International Year of light?, as it has been declared by UNESCO and the UN for the year 2015 is an issue that can be integrated to the general idea of Unit 9 ?Earth Day, Every Day? for the sixthgraders.

The goals of our project are the following:

? To focus students? interest on the use of light throughout the human existence on the Earth

? To give young pupils a stimulus to find ways to reduce light pollution and electricity

? To be able to use technology (internet, visuals, realia etc.)to get information on new technology and developments and to compare our country?s project to those of other countries

.? To help students figure out that light is one of the most important elements of our existence and finally

? Students would be able to understand that light is the element that illuminates the past, help us to communicate with other beings on earth and brightens and sustains our future.

?

Light is such an important kind of energy.It?s natural but also artificial.Without it, life on Earth would be impossible and technology, as we know it, wouldn?t exist.This eternal kind of energy has to do with everything around us and beyond us.UNESCO and UN have declared 2015 as the year of light so why not take advantage of this opportunity and show our students the importance of this powerful source?We chose sixth grades because they are old enough to understand meanings and facts as well as many technological issues. We?ve named our project ?Let there be light? and hoped our students would embrace it. We have divided the project in units and each unit has to do with a different issue-chapter concerning light phenomena,  historic facts, the history of artificial light, inventors and their inventions, videos that are referred to each chapter as well as images displayed on the projection screen. Each time we give our students vocabulary related to the chapter and the students that are involved in have to assign tasks provided by us.

PRESENTING THE UNITS:

UNIT 1: Light in general.We discussed about the importance of light and why we chose this topic to be our project.Videos played:

1.?let there be light?- Mike Oldfield                            

2. https://vimeo.com/117511736 UN/UNESCO International Year of Light

Activities: 1) Write a poem about light                   

2) Find compound words containing the word ?light?                   

3) Draw something related with ?light versus dark?

UNIT 2: The invention of light-light in ancient religionsThis chapter had to do with what Romans, Greeks, Egyptians, Indians, Aztecs, Chinese and Scandinavians believed light was and how they had personalized light or the sun as a god or a goddess. So, Sol, Helios, Sunna, Ra, Inti and other names were used to show people?s worship of the light. We also talked about the invention of fire(as it releases light) and how people used it to protect, warm themselves and cook their food.

Videos played: The story of light 1954.General Electric Company; animated history of Lighting

Activities: 1) Find symbols of the sun in ancient times                   

2) Find out some information about gods or goddesses of the sun                   

3) After having watched the video ,write down the means of lighting people used throughout the centuries

UNIT 3: Natural phenomena associated with lightThis should be a really long chapter so we decided to discuss only about a few phenomena that students might had been taught in their Science lesson. We talked about Rainbows, Moonbows, Refraction, Aurora Borealis and Mirage (or else called Fata Morgana)

Video played: Night of the Northern Lights-MaciejWiniarczuk

Activity: Students were given a worksheet and had to answer the questions following

UNIT 4: Photosynthesis

We talked about photosynthesis, how it works and what is the importance of it.

Activities: We gave students a worksheet concerning the subject and after they had studied it they had to answer the questions following the text.

Video played:Photosynthesis/Photosynthesis in plants/photosynthesis-Biology basics for children/Elearnin

UNIT 5: The History of light- Artificial light

From using shells in 70.000B.C. as oil lamps to 1.000A.D.with the use of street lamps.

Video played: ?The Evolution of Light: How Man Made Day? (circa 1960)

Activity: The history of the lighthouses (students had to find information, draw pictures or print them, if they were able to) 

UNIT 6: Artificial Light since the 1st century A.D. till 1893 when Nikola Tesla put forward his ideas in high frequency and wireless electric lighting. Of course we talked about Thomas Edison and the production of his first 16 watt lightbulb.

Videos played:1. Thomas Edison the history of Thomas Edison (animated)                         

 2. Unexplained News/ Wireless electricity? It?s here! (CNN)

Activity: We asked from the students to find out inventions related to electricity.

UNIT 7: LED lights from the beginning of the 20th century till our days.LEDs started as just little indicators that couldn?t give off significant light and only came in red or yellow. Now they not only come in a wide range of colors, but they also come in a wide variety of products, such as bug lights or LED flood lights; even Exit Signs can be LED! They are now proving to be the best option in lighting for their high efficiency and low radiation levels. In a world where people are obsessed with cutting costs, LEDs have found their place. But LEDs are still evolving?as the technology gets better, prices will drop, allowing for widespread conversion where once there was hesitation.

Videos played: 1. The Light Emitting Diode (LED): Where did it come from? / Stuff of Genius                             2. Light Pollution Vhojgak Drezziv

Activity: We asked the students to think, find  and write down the benefits of LED lighting bulbs (group A)And write some things about light pollution (group B)

UNIT 8: Light in Art and cultureWe talked about Laser Light Shows, Stained glass, Photography and Cinematography, Theatre and Dance, Architectural illumination and Art restoration. In this session we  saw the many different ways in which light impacts on art and culture, and we also mentioned  how the scientific uses of light provide new insights into the study of our past.

Video played: Jean Michel Jarre? Oxygen @ live 720p HD Antony Sharmman

UNIT 9: In this unit we tried to show our students how light science and light technologies impact on medicine, vision and life sciences in general.We referred to light in medicine (CT, scans, MRIs, ultrasounds Xrays, lasers and their use in dermatology, ophthalmology and dentistry). Another field we talked about was light Sciences in exploring microcosm (microscopes) and macrocosm (telescopes). Light in vision was another topic we handled as optics and vision go together and optical and photonics technologies are used to examine, correct, and test normal and abnormal vision.

Video played: Lasers: Transforming Life

This unit was the end of the whole project. 

We tried to refer to the most aspects of it in the available class time schedule.Throughout the project the students participated eagerly and with a lot of enthusiasm. They found out how nice is to cooperate, work in groups. They discovered many new things about light and its use, things they had never thought or imagined before?They became little scientists through the experiments

they performed.They felt like little artists while drawing or writing poems about light.Students developed the cooperative work and they used technology to get the information they were asked by their teachers. Finally, at the end of the project, they could be able to discover or suggest ways of reducing light pollution and saving energy with the use of newly developed economical devices.