Lesson 13 of 84 · Engineering and Design
Experiment⭐ 30 XP🛠️ Engineer ShopLight and the Color Spectrum
Engineering and Design.
🎯 Your mission
Set it up. Test it. Be amazed.
⚡ The twist
Every solution creates a new problem. That's good — that's the next project.
Mind = Blown
🚀 The Saturn V rocket burned 20 tons of fuel per second at liftoff.
Make a hypothesis first
Predict: which design will hold the most weight?
What You'll Learn
Light behaves as both a wave and a particle. White light can be separated into a spectrum of colors using a prism. Each color has a different wavelength.
Key Words
- prototype
- design
- constraint
Materials Needed
- cardboard
- tape
- scissors
- straws
- paper clips
- rubber bands
Safety First
- Tie back long hair before starting the experiment.
Steps
Read the introduction and identify the main idea of this lesson.
Create a solar oven from a pizza box lined with foil. Measure the temperature inside on a sunny day. Try melting chocolate or cheese.
Compare the before and after states.
Write your conclusion: did the results match your hypothesis? What would you change next time?
Check Your Understanding
Question 1
1 of 3What is amplitude?
Where you see this in real life
Your phone, your bike, your shoes — all designed with this idea.
Stretch Challenge
Try this in real life this week.
Build something — anything — out of stuff in your recycling bin.
For the dinner table
“What's something around the house you'd redesign — and how?”
Next Smart Experiment
We'll pick an experiment that matches exactly how you're thinking right now.
Share this experiment
Send it to a parent who's looking for a 10-minute kitchen science win.
Checkout complete lesson on Engineering and Design for 4th Grade
Get the full Engineering and Design track as a printable PDF — all lessons, worksheets, and answer keys.