Popular pinhole light box STEM challenge for 1st grade

As I was writing this 1st Grade Next Gen Light Unit, I knew I wanted to include some light science experiments I’ve done in the classroom, but I also wanted to include some STEM based experiments and challenges…so the Pinhole Light Box Challenge was born!  This morning, I tried it out with my 5 year old and he LOVED it!  Here’s an up close look at this engaging challenge!

Setting up the Pinhole Light Box

During the first week of our light waves unit, we are learning about why we need light.  So for the pinhole light box challenge, I placed 1 small bulldozer toy in the box. I taped up the box. And I used a pen to poke a hole in the side of our box.

(In the classroom, I would set up the boxes the same way, but I would do one box for each table group with something different in each box.)

The Pinhole Light Box Problem

Then, I told Cooper the problem.

“The UPS truck man needs to find out what is in this box, but we are not allowed to open it! Can you peek inside and see what is in there?”

He quickly figured out that we couldn’t see anything, and when I asked him why not, he said, “It’s too dark!”

So, I asked, “What can we do about that so that we can see what is in the box without opening it?”

Solving the Pinhole LIght Box

First, he tried poking another hole on the same side.

…and shining a flashlight through one hole and looking through the same hole…and then looking through the second hole…

He poked another hole or two on that side before deciding to poke one on the top.

“Mommy, shine that light on the side hole, and I’ll look in at the top hole!”

But still, he could get no good visual on the toy…So he laid the flashlight on the top hole and peeked through the side.

No luck!  Finally, he tried poking a hole on the other side and peeking through!  “I see it, Momma!! It’s my bulldozer!”

Then, he drew a picture of the bulldozer on the pinhole light waves boxes printable and labeled it!

Adding Rotations to this STEM Challenge

That was enough of a STEM challenge for my 5 year old, but in the classroom, we would complete the challenge by rotating through each pinhole light box. They would “solve” their pinhole light box. But once they rotate to the next station, that box should have been solved by the group before them.

So, for the rest of the stations, they would just be testing out the light pinhole boxes and trying to see into them to discover what object was hidden inside.

They would observe what was in the box and draw and label their observations for each of the boxes.  This was the perfect way to discover why we need light and how light helps us!

Find this light box STEM project separately or with much more in this Next Gen Light Unit!