Mississippi Science P.8.6.6
The Standard
- P.8.6
- Students will demonstrate an understanding of the properties, behaviors, and application of waves.
Obtain and evaluate scientific information to explain the relationship between seeing color and the transmission, absorption, or reflection of light waves by various materials.
2026 Mississippi College- and Career-Readiness Standards for Science · Motions, Forces, and Energy
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students use observations and short science texts to explain why a material looks a certain color. They identify which light waves reach the eye after light is reflected or transmitted, and which are absorbed.
What Mastery Looks Like
- A student can explain why red paper looks red in white light and may look dark in blue light. They can use a flashlight test to check a claim that a red filter creates red light.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may think colored objects make their own light. They may also think a red object always looks red, no matter what color light shines on it. Some confuse the light a colored filter transmits with the light an opaque surface reflects.
How to Assess It
- Exit ticket: “A red card and a clear red folder both create red light.” Is the claim accurate? Explain what happens to white light at each material, using reflection, transmission, and absorption.
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Shine a white flashlight through a clear red folder onto white paper, then onto red paper, and have students draw each light path.
Ask students to write which claim fits a red apple: “It makes red light” or “It reflects red light,” and explain why.
Have pairs match light-path cards to a red shirt, blue filter, and black paper, then explain each match.
Show a photo of a white costume under red stage lights and ask why the costume appears red.
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Printable P.8.6.6 Worksheet
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Related Standards
- P.8.6.1
Interpret the characteristics and behaviors of sound and light waves to determine the relationship between matter and energy; determine the medium for transmiss...
- P.4.6B.4
Plan and conduct scientific investigations to explain how light behaves when it strikes transparent, translucent, and opaque materials.
- P.4.6B.2
Obtain and communicate information to explain how the visibility of an object is related to light.
- P.8.6.3
Conduct simple investigations about the performance of waves to describe their behavior (e.g., refraction, reflection, transmission, and absorption) as they int...
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