Play, Be, C: The Lighting Technician
Resources and activities themed around a STEM job, to build language and understanding around the world of work.
Overview
Lighting technicians design the way lights are used in television programmes, films, concerts, in the theatre or to light up buildings, statues or bridges from the outside.
Lighting technicians are:
Observant and look carefully at light and shadows.
Creative in the way they use lights to make people feel happy, sad, frightened or excited.
Collaborative when they work in a team to set up lights for shows, filming and events.
Early Learning Goals links
- Mathematics ELG: Number
- Understanding the World ELG: Past and Present
- Understanding the World ELG: People, Culture and Communities
- Understanding the World ELG: The Natural World
- Expressive Arts and Design ELG: Creating with Materials
Characteristics of effective learning
Our EYFS units provide enabling environments with teaching and support from adults. Reflecting on the characteristics of effective teaching and learning, children will have opportunity to learn and develop by:
• playing and exploring – children investigate and experience things, and ‘have a go’
• active learning – children concentrate and keep on trying if they encounter difficulties, and enjoy achievements
• creating and thinking critically – children have and develop their own ideas, make links between ideas, and develop strategies for doing things
Taken from Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage.
© Crown copyright 2023 licensed under the terms of the Open Government Licence v3.0.
The Book
Our suggested book for this Unit is The Black Rabbit by Philippa Leathers.
You can find out more about the book at the publisher’s page, and the Google Books page will link you to retailers and local libraries.
Activities
These adult led activities and provocations will support the introduction of the lighting technician career to the children in your setting.
Investigating light & shadow adult led activity
Discover how shadows are made and investigate what happens when light shines through different materials.
Making lanterns adult led activity
Investigate how to change the colour of light by making lanterns.
Sun dials adult led activity
Tell the time using the sun and a shadow!
Light box provocation
Investigate how light shines through different materials.
Shadow puppets provocation
Challenge the children to make a shadow puppet and use it to tell a story in a shadow theatre.
Dark den provocation
Challenge the children to light up the dark den with different colours and effects.
STEM at home activities
We have included these links to our related STEM at home activities. These could be sent out for families to try at home, or run in school at a family session.
Visit our shadow tubes STEM at home page.Resources
You can download our lighting technician poster to use in your setting.
Lighting technicians design and implement the lighting for live and pre-recorded media events such as concerts, television programmes, films and public events. Lighting is crucial to any production, setting ambiance, mood and style to the event.
The production director of an event decides what they want from the lighting and explains this to the lighting technician. It is the task of the lighting technician to use their creativity to bring that vision to reality.
A lighting technician needs to collaborate with stagehands, riggers and electricians. They set up the configurations of lights which are remotely controlled by a control board. During a production, the lighting technician may need to sit at the board and observe pre-determined cues to set different lighting effects in action. Sequences of effects are often configured with computer programming.
As well as being collaborative, creative and observant, a lighting technician needs to have a good level of personal fitness and endurance, be good at manual work and comfortable with heights!
