Investigating White Light: What colors make up white light?
Summary
Students will investigate what colors make up white light by exploring light through two different hands-on activities. One will include students coloring a color wheel, which will be used as a spinner to create white light. Another activity will involve flashlights and colored plastic film to put on the ends to discover what colors make white light. The lesson will end with a group discussion about what worked and what did not. Also, I will perform a large group demo of both activities.
CollapseLearning Goals
This activity is designed for students to use inquiry to explore white light. They will be working as individuals and as teams to predict outcomes and explore actual outcomes.
Key Concepts:
Students will explore colors of light.
Students will describe visible light as part of the electromagnetic spectrum.
Vocab:
-Wavelength
-Spectrum
Context for Use
I will be using this activity with a 4th grade class of about 25 students. We will be conducting the lesson in our classroom. I will need about 45 minutes to 60 minutes to complete this lesson. We will need cardstock spinners, markers, crayons, scissors, 25 flashlights, and colored plastic film for each student. This will fit in perfectly with our light unit. It will be a great introduction. I think this would be easy to use in a variety of settings.
Description and Teaching Materials
Students will be given a white cardstock wheel with sections diving it into eight pie slices. Students will be asked to color the wheel with colors. Their goal is to make a spinner filled with color that when they spin it really fast, only white will show. Who can make the best spinner? Students will also participate in another activity where they are given flashlights and either a red, blue, or a yellow plastic film that will fit over the lighted end of their flashlight. Students will be asked to explore the dark room alone or with friends to try to create white light. We will end the science period as a whole group going over what we have discovered. I will make sure to bring in a power drill to show the spinners working in a more consistent manner. I also think this will clearly show the students how all the colors make up white. I also will have three slide projectors set up. One with red film, one with blue, and one with yellow. This way I will be able to demonstrate for the whole class, how all the colors together make up white light. The spinner activity is taken from our Science Book MacMillan-McGraw Hill. The light activity was shown to me in my Physics MnStep class. The flashlight idea came from another teacher in my MnSTEP class.
Teaching Notes and Tips
The reason for bringing in the drill is to show the spinner spinning quickly and accurately. In the past, we have tried to spin them on our desks and when I asked my students what color they saw, they would reply, "red, now yellow, blue, now green" They weren't able to get their spinners going fast enough, so they would say the colors in the order they were on their spinner. The drill is only for demonstration purposes, no students will be using it. This is different from the past, because we have read about light in our books, but did not interact with it at all.
Assessment
I will be informally assessing as students work through the activities. I think many light bulbs will go off when we do the whole group demonstrations. Formal assessment will occur at the end of the chapter when we take a test.
Standards
3 II C The student will explore the characteristics and properties of sound and light.