Summary
Did you ever wonder what’s really at the end of a rainbow? Come find out as Tim and Moby explain the science behind these wondrous optical illusions. Some rain, a little sunlight, the right time of day, and voila—a rainbow! But there’s whole lot more to it than that. Sunlight is actually bouncing around inside millions of different raindrops. The droplets refract, reflect and disperse what we usually see as white light into the various colors of the spectrum. All of those raindrops act like miniature projectors, casting a multi-colored arc onto sheets of rain. If you’re standing between the distant rain and the Sun, you’ll see the beautiful bands of color that make up a rainbow stretching across the sky! So check out this BrainPOP movie to learn how to brighten even the rainiest of days.
Viewer safety
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Teaching resources
Discussion questions
A few questions to talk through after watching Rainbows:
- What is one new thing you learned about rainbows?
- Can you explain it to a partner in your own words?
- Where might you see this in the real world?
- What is one question you still have?
Quick work-a-long
Try it:
- Write one sentence explaining rainbows.
- Draw or give one example of your own.