Hands-On Science Learning

🔦🔎We often receive comments during field experiences noting how much our students know when they arrive to a field location. That’s because we really focus on integrating classroom learning and research before we head out to the field. Our students arrive on location, ready to put their learning to work, to ask questions and find answers.

As part of this trimester’s maritime transportation unit, 4th and 5th graders are investigating lighthouses, and they brought some of their research to life with an experiment aimed at discovering how lenses concentrate and brighten light. By shining flashlights with and without a magnifying glass, then observing, drawing and describing how the light shifted from wide and dim to focused and bright, students gained firsthand knowledge of how a Fresnel lens works to shine light far out to sea to keep sailors safe. The Fresnel lens, invented in the 19th century specifically to solve this problem, revolutionized lighthouse design. Later this week, they’ll see one up close at the Montauk Lighthouse.