What is refraction?
In this activity, students are introduced to an analogy through a role-play that helps them visualise the refraction of light. The analogy explains why light bends when it enters or exits transparent materials and also why a prism separates white light into a colour spectrum.
Student refraction
In this analogy, students acting as a wave, experience refraction when passing from one media to another.
By the end of this activity, students should be able to:
explain why light bends when entering and exiting a material
explain why a prism breaks light into a spectrum.
Download the Word file (see link below).
Related content
For more information about refraction of light, see Refraction of light.
Find out more about how colour works.
Activity ideas
Another popular investigation of refraction of light is found in the activity Investigating refraction and spearfishing. In this students aim spears at a model of a fish in a container of water. When they move their spears towards the fish, they miss!
In Angle of refraction calculator challenge students choose two types of transparent substance. They then enter the angle of the incident ray in the spreadsheet calculator, and the angle of the refracted ray is calculated for them.
