Students compare how the spectrum of different light sources appears when each one is viewed through a transmission diffraction grating. The sheet guides them through building a simple cardboard viewing setup, aiming five light sources at a white screen, and measuring the distance from the center white spot to both the red and violet edges of each spectrum. Data rows are included for sunlight, an incandescent bulb, a white LED, a fluorescent or CFL bulb, a computer or phone screen, and one open row for an additional source. Five analysis questions push students to distinguish continuous spectra from line spectra and reason about what the color differences reveal. This experiment suits grades 5 through 8 and pairs naturally with a waves and light unit.

As a standalone homeschool lab it requires no advance lab prep beyond sourcing a diffraction grating, and the sheet’s built-in background section on how gratings work means your student can read the physics before picking up a pencil. A challenge prompt at the bottom asks what happens when the grating-to-screen distance changes, which opens a natural extension for older or advanced learners. Completing the data table and answering all five analysis questions demonstrates that your homeschooler can collect structured measurements, identify patterns across trials, and connect observational evidence to an underlying wave model.