About This Course

Course Description: This unit on light and matter begins with a perplexing phenomenon of one-way mirrors and how this material can act as both a mirror and a window at the same time. Students directly observe and investigate the one-way mirror phenomenon using a scaled box model built from two combined boxes with a flashlight in one box, darkness in the other box, and a one-way mirror in between the two. Through this initial investigation, students figure out that the one-way mirror acts like a mirror on the light side of the system and a window on the dark side of the system. This experience prompts students to wonder: Why do we sometimes see different things when looking at the same object?