A New Way of Looking

A New Way of Looking
Lesson 3 of 3 (unit consists of 3 lessons)
5th-8th Grade
Truth:
Light is absorbed or reflected to give things we see color.

Books Needed:

• The Usborne Science Encyclopedia page 216 under the heading “Mixing Light” and page 217 under the heading “Mixing of Pigments”

Materials for each group of 4:

• Red Paint
• Blue Paint
• Green Paint
• Red Light
• Blue Light
• Green Light
• Colors from Lesson 2
• Paint Brushes (Or finger paint then you will need wipes)
• Copies of the Worksheets provided with this lesson

Safety:
Cover students’ clothing to keep the paint from staining clothing

Prepare:
Ask students what gives the world color? How is everything not just white?

Present:
1. Copy the worksheets provided on the next three pages
2. Hand out worksheets, paints and lights
3. Students should fill in the light colors using real colors like colored pencils and fill in the circles with paint as labeled on the worksheet below.


Compare Types:
Express:
[graphics include circles for different colors of paint and mixing of colors]

1. What color do you get when you mix all the light colors together?



2. What color do you get when you mix all the paint colors together?
Key:

1. What color do you get when you mix all the light colors together?
White
2. What color do you get when you mix all the paint colors together?
Black or some dark color other than white

Express:
Refer to pages 216-217 in Usborne Science Encyclopedia
Teacher Explains:
“Color is one of the strangest things about light. Here's one obvious riddle: if we see things because sunlight is reflected off them, how come everything isn't the same color? Why isn't everything the color of sunlight? You probably know the answer to this already. Sunlight isn't light of just one color—it's what we call white light, made up of all the different colors mixed together. We know this because we can see rainbows, those colorful curves that appear in the sky when droplets of water split sunlight into its component colors by refracting (bending) different colors of light by different amounts.
Light is not refracted but REFLECTED by items. Some of the light is absorbed and the rest of the light is reflected to give an item a color. So white paper is reflecting all light but red is absorbing all the light but red and reflecting the red light so you see red.
If you shone light of other colors on tomatoes, what would happen? Let's suppose you made some green light by passing sunlight through a piece of green plastic (something we call a filter). If you shone this on a red tomato, the tomato would appear black. That's because tomatoes absorb green light. There is simply no red light for them to reflect”(Usborne, p. 216-217).
OVER ALL IDEA: Light is a mixture of seven colors of light. Light is absorbed or reflected to give things we see color. The teacher should have students write this down.

Assess:

What gives the world color?

The reflection and absorption of light.


Extend:

See for Yourself on page 217 of the Encyclopedia.
Parents should try this experiment with their student
Or
The following website is part of the Encyclopedia used in our curriculum www.usborne-quicklinks.com. Teachers would type in science and pick quicklinks for pages 216-217 of the Encyclopedia. Students would be able to mix light and pigments and check out other resources provided by the Encyclopedia’s website provided. Students could do this as class using a Roku Television or a class set of tablets.

ISTE Standards Students:
1a Students articulate and set personal learning goals, develop strategies leveraging technology to achieve them and reflect on the learning process itself to improve learning outcomes.
1c Students use technology to seek feedback that informs and improves their practice and to demonstrate their learning in a variety of ways.
3d Students build knowledge by actively exploring real-world issues and problems, developing ideas and theories and pursuing answers and solutions.
5b Students collect data or identify relevant data sets, use digital tools to analyze them, and represent data in various ways to facilitate problem-solving and decision making.
6b Students create original works or responsibly repurpose or remix digital resources into new creations.
ISTE Standards Educators:
1c Stay current with research that supports improved student learning outcomes, including findings from the learning sciences.
3b Establish a learning culture that promotes curiosity and critical examination of online resources and fosters digital literacy and media fluency.
4a Dedicate planning tine to collaborate with colleagues to create authentic learning experiences that leverage technology.
5a Use technology to create, adapt and personalize learning experiences that foster independent learning and accommodate learner differences and needs.
5c Explore and apply instructional design principles to create innovative digital learning environments that engage and support learning.
6c Create learning opportunities that challenge students to use a design process and computational thinking to innovate and solve problems.
6d Model and nurture creativity and creative expression to communicate ideas, knowledge or connections.