Teaching Reflection and Absorption With Easter Eggs

We have just completed our light unit, so to review the concept of the reflection and absorption of the colors of the rainbow, I used plastic Easter eggs.

I wrote the word "reflejado" (reflected) on the outside with a Sharpie (already rubbing off, darn it!). Then, on the inside I wrote the word "absorbidos" (absorbed) and placed pom-poms of each color of the rainbow inside the egg except for yellow since that would be the reflected color.

Students wrote down the absorbed colors on a recording sheet before opening the egg to check the pom-poms. I did this for yellow, orange, green, and blue.

But the most important and tricky concepts are that of black and white. So I colored a yellow egg black with a Sharpie. Not pretty, but it served the purpose.

Of course there is no reflected color with black, so inside the students find all the colors of the rainbow.

Then on to white. Ok, I'm sure I could have used some paint or something more effective, but I opted for roll-on white out. Once again, unsightly but it got the point across!

And what should the students find inside?

Nothing! White light is made up of all the colors of the rainbow, so they are all reflected and no colors are absorbed.

I think my students enjoyed this and we also celebrated spring at the same time! For the accompanying recording sheet (nothing fancy, sorry!) in Spanish and English, click here.

Happy Spring!