Oh, hey there! My name's Adam and I work at the Ontario Science Centre, and today I'm joined by
a friend ... who was with me just a moment ago! Where did you go, I know you're around
here somewhere. Ah, there you are! This is Umbra, can everybody wave and say hi to Umbra?
Hi Umbra, hi! Oh, Umbra, you're so excited to join us here today, Umbra and I are both very
thirsty so we're going to go to the kitchen and get two glasses of water. Why don't you join us?
Great, Umbra, we finally made it to the kitchen! I know, I'm excited too. But it sure is dark in
here, I know what to do, let me turn on the light switch! Hey, why isn't the light switch
turning on the light? I wonder, do you know Umbra? You do? Can you tell me? Uh huh, oh Umbra says the
light bulb's probably burnt out and can't make any more light and that makes a lot of sense Umbra.
Luckily, wherever I go I always carry a spare light with me, so I'm going to count to the
number three and I'm going to turn the light on. Maybe you can count with me? Here we go! 1, 2, 3!
Umbra, are you ok, you look really scared!
Well, I know that looks really scary but what you just saw on the wall was your shadow!
Oh what's that, uh huh, uh huh, oh Umbra says they've never heard of a shadow before! Well,
that's ok Umbra, there's nothing dangerous about shadows, in fact shadows can be a lot of fun!
You know what, I think this is a great opportunity for us to learn all about shadows, what do you say
Umbra? Oh, Umbra's excited, and I hope you are too. Let's start by explaining how shadows are
made. When I shine this light on this wall, you'll see that it creates a bright circle of light.
But what would happen to the circle if I place something like
this fork between the light and the wall? Do you think the light would stay the same shape?
Oh, what do you think, Umbra? Uh huh, uh huh, ooh, that's a great guess. Let's try it out.
If you thought that the circle was going to look different, you were right! The light on
the wall looks different now. As you can see, the circle of light isn't as big as it was before.
Most of the light is still shining on the wall, but some of it is shining on the
fork. Because the light from my flashlight can't go through my
fork, the fork blocks or stops all the light from getting to the wall.
This leaves a dark spot on the wall, and that dark spot is what we call a shadow.
I can also make the shadow of the fork disappear if I move it away from the light.
See how the shadow appears and then disappears when I move my fork away from my light.
So if I move my fork towards the light, there's the shadow. And if I move my fork away,
the shadow is gone. This shows us that shadows are always made by objects near a light. One of
the very neat things about shadows is that you can use almost anything to make one.
Today we used a fork, but as we saw earlier, Umbra also made a big shadow on the wall using
their body. Oh Umbra, where are you going? If you get too close to the wall, you'll see your shadow
again. There's your shadow, Umbra are you scared? You're not? Are you excited? Oh that's amazing!
Oh, that's fantastic news Umbra. Now that we all understand how shadows are created? They're a lot
less scary. Isn't that right, Umbra? Oh, amazing. So Umbra used their whole body to make a shadow,
but you don't have to use your whole body, you can use parts of your body instead. One of my
favourite things to make shadows out of are my hands! Hmm, I wonder what would happen
if I was to move my hand closer to the light? I wonder. Hmm. Do you think the shadow
would change its size? Oh, what do you think, Umbra? Uh huh, uh huh, oh that's a great guess.
Does anyone else have any other guesses? Whoa, look at that, the size of my shadow did change.
Alright, here's a question for everybody. Did the shadow of my hand get bigger
or did it get smaller? If you said bigger, you're correct! As I move my hand towards the flashlight,
my hand covers up more of the light that's coming out of the flashlight. This means that
more light is shining on my hand and less light is shining on the wall. Less light on the wall
makes a bigger shadow. Making shadow shapes with you hand is called making shadow puppets.
I'm going to make a few shadow puppet animals. Can you guess which animal shape I'm making?
Oh I know Umbra, I know! That was so much fun. And the best part is,
you can make your own shadow puppets at home! All you need is a flashlight and a dark room. Hmm,
I wonder how many shadow puppet shapes you can make. Can you make more than 3? I also wondered if
you were to move your hand around, could you make a shadow puppet shape of your favourite animal?
That sounds like a lot of fun. Oh what's that Umbra? Uh huh, uh huh, oh, that's a really good
point. We came into the kitchen because we wanted a drink. Alright Umbra, let's get some water.
Hi again everyone. Welcome back it's Adam and Umbra. Say hi Umbra! Oh hello, hello.
Back to share one last fun activity. For our last activity, we're going to put on a play! Oh I know
isn't that exciting Umbra? We're going to make a shadow puppet play. I made a shadow puppet theatre
from a card board box and some tissue paper. I cut out a hole in the back of the box and placed
some tissue paper over it, and I have a flashlight behind my box so my shadow puppets show up on the
tissue paper. You can also make your own play with the same materials, or you could use a wall and
a flashlight like I did earlier. Alright, let's start our show. Let the shadow puppet play begin!
Oh wow, we're shadow puppets now too, this is so cool! Are you excited for the puppet show Umbra?
Great, let's go backstage.
Hey Umbra, I'm kind of thirsty, but it's dark in here, so I'm going to get a flashlight so I
can see. You wait here, ok? I'll be right back. Good thing I got this flashlight,
it's easier to see now, and I can get some water. But, are you ok Umbra? You look kind of scared.
You saw something scary? But that's just your shadow! And we learned if you cover a light,
you create shadows. We can make fun shadow shapes using a lamp, a flashlight, or even go outside
and use the sun. We can even make fun shadow shapes using our own hands! You can make a dog,
woof woof woof! You can also make a bird, chirp chirp chirp chirp chirp.
And, a bunny! Hmm, I don't know what sound they make, though. Maybe you know.
So as you can see, shadows can be a lot of fun, Umbra. Did you have fun?
Great. I did too, and I hope everyone watching had fun as well. Yay!