Sun FUNdamentals: Light & Shadows

Explore light and shadows through engineering design challenges

VEEP has designed an introductory unit with three lessons on solar energy (light and shadows) for K–3 that incorporates engineering principles in engaging, hands-on lessons, using NGSS and Common Core as frameworks. This kit gives everything you need to run these lessons, including having students compare the light-blocking qualities of different materials and creating and exploring light-blocking structures. These lessons celebrate the student as explorer, tinkerer and collaborator, and they lay the foundation for deeper understandings of energy in higher grades.

What's in the kit

• Kit includes: Model trees, index cards, building connector set, flashlight, various sample squares of materials to explore the effects of sun and shade, Sun Up, Sun Down book, and more. Click here to view the full Sun FUNdamentals kit inventory.
• Kit size: 1 large plastic tote

NGSS Standards Addressed

K-PS3-1 Energy: Make observations to determine the effect of sunlight on Earth’s surface.

K-PS3-2 Energy: Use tools and materials provided to design and build a structure that will reduce the warming effect of sunlight on Earth’s surface.

K-2ETS1-1 Engineering Design: Ask questions, make observations, and gather information about a situation people want to change to define a simple problem that can be solved through the development of a new or improved object or tool.

K-2ETS1-2 Engineering Design: Develop a simple sketch, drawing, or physical model to illustrate how the shape of an object helps it function as needed to solve a given problem.

K-2ETS1-3 Engineering Design: Analyze data from tests of two objects designed to solve the same problem to compare the strengths and weaknesses of how each performs.

1-PS4-3 Waves and Their Applications in Technologies for Information Transfer: Plan and conduct investigations to determine the effect of placing objects made with different materials in the path of a beam of light.

2-PS1-1 Matter and Its Interactions: Plan and conduct an investigation to describe and classify different kinds of materials by their observable properties.