NSES Content Standard B  Physical Science: Transfer of energy Grades 5-8, page 155 Light interacts with matter by transmission (including refraction), absorption, or scattering (including reflection). To see an object, light from that object--emitted by or scattered from it--must enter the eye.

 
Benchmark 4F The Physical Setting: Motion
Grades 6-8, page 90
Something can be "seen" when light waves emitted or reflected by it enter the eye--just as something can be "heard" when sound waves from it enter the ear.

Benchmark 4F The Physical Setting: Motion
Grades 9-12, page 92
Waves can superpose on one another, bend around corners, reflect off surfaces, be absorbed by materials they enter, and change direction when entering a new material. All these effects vary with wavelength. The energy of waves (like any form of energy) can be changed into other forms of energy.