This week in Year 3, our young scientists took part in an exciting hands‑on investigation all about light—and more importantly, how it behaves. Our mission? To discover how light travels and why we sometimes can’t see objects, even when they’re right in front of us.

🔍 Our Science Challenge

We began with sealed cardboard boxes. Inside each box, we placed a selection of mystery objects—things like toy animals, cubes, dice, and small classroom items. On the top of each box, we carefully made small holes and peered inside.

But… nothing!
Even with our eyes right up to the holes, we couldn’t see a single thing inside the box.

True to our role as scientists, we stopped and asked ourselves the most important question of all:
“Why can’t we see the objects?”

💡 Our Investigation

Next, we added torches to our experiment. When we shone the torch through one hole, something amazing happened—we could suddenly see one object, but only the one directly below the beam of light.

The rest of the box remained dark.

This led us to an exciting discovery…

✨ Our Big Scientific Conclusion

We realised that:
💡 Light is needed for us to see objects.
💡 And light travels in straight lines.

Because the torch’s beam travelled directly downward, we could only see the item exactly in its path. Anything outside that straight beam stayed in darkness, hidden from view.