Activity 1: COLOR HUNT

Background Information: Different colors are caused by the way an object reflects and absorbs light. To see color, you have to have light. When light shines on an object some colors bounce off the object, which is called reflection, and other colors are taken in by it, which is called absorption. Our eyes only see the colors that are bounced off or reflected. Most humans can see the seven colors of the rainbow: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet, and lots and lots of other colors that are made up when the colors of the rainbow mix together.

STEM Career Connections: A color technologist is in charge of choosing and creating colors that would be best for products in the manufacturing industry. They're involved in producing pigments and dyes for food items, automobiles, paper, and any other product that needs color to make it look better and more appealing

Materials Needed: A set of items of different colors (for example: paint samples, crayons, blocks, a rainbow toy)

Directions:

  1. Gather a collection or set of items of different colors.

  2. Look around the room, building, or outside to try to find something (or more than one thing) that is each color.

Bonus: Collect multiple items of each color of the rainbow - red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple. Arrange the items on the ground or table to make a color wheel.

Activity 2: NEWTON’S COLOR WHEEL

Background Information: Light is a form of energy that moves in straight lines. Light can reflect off things, and that reflected light enters our eyes, allowing us to see. Humans can detect colors of the rainbow as shown in this spectrum. White light is a combination of all colors in the color spectrum. It has all the colors of the rainbow.

STEM Career Connections: An optical engineer is a scientist who uses light properties to create, control, and manipulate light for use in materials and devices. They work in various fields, including agriculture, aerospace, lighting, textiles, and design.

Materials Needed: template, pencil, paper, markers, scissors, cardboard, glue stick, ruler, yarn

Directions:

  1. Trace a color wheel template onto a piece of white paper.

  2. Color each section of the color wheel a different color. Make sure to color them in order - red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo (blue with red over it), and violet/purple.

  3. Use scissors to cut out the paper circle.

  4. Trace the outside of the paper circle onto a piece of cardboard and cut it out.

  5. Glue the colored paper circle to one side of the cardboard circle

  6. With a grown-up's help, cut/poke two small holes, about a centimeter apart, near the center of the color wheel.

  7. Measure and cut a 1-meter (approximately 36 inches) length of yarn.

  8. Thread the yarn through the two holes and tie the ends of the yarn together to form a big loop.

  9. Push the color wheel to the middle of the yarn loop.

  10. Put a finger in each side of the loop and twist the yarn until it’s fairly tight, but not hurting your fingers.

  11. Pull the yarn taut by pulling your hands apart. This should start the color wheel spinning.

  12. While it’s spinning, look at the colored side of their color wheel. What do you notice?

Activity 3: COLOR CHROMATOGRAPHY

Background Information: A mixture is a combination of two or more things. Some common mixtures include fruit salad, lemonade, water (H2O), and air. A chemical mixture is a combination of two or more chemicals.

Chromatography is a way of separating a chemical mixture into its parts. Markers are made of different pigments or dyes. Using chromatography, we can separate marks made by markers into the different parts (colors) that are combined to make them.

STEM Career Connections: A chromatographer is a scientist who specializes in separating colored substances, like food coloring, dyes, inks, and pigments, from mixtures. Chromatographers typically work in science labs performing experiments.

Materials Needed: coffee filter (or paper towel), black marker, pipette, plate, washable markers

Directions:

  1. Use a black marker to draw a circle around the middle of a coffee filter.

  2. Place the coffee filter on the plate. Use a pipette to place a few drops of water on the black circle. Pick up the coffee filter and hold it flat by the edges.

  3. Watch as the water soaks into the filter or paper towel and spreads. Notice what happens to the circle you drew.

  4. As the filter dries, what colors do you see? Is black really just black or is it made up of something else?

  5. Use the colored markers to make a design on another coffee filter, leaving some parts of the coffee filter white. Place the filter on a dry plate and use the eyedropper to place small drops of water on the colored parts of your design. Pick up the coffee filter and hold it flat by the edges. Allow the water to soak into the filter and watch what happens to the colors of your design as the water moves and dries.

    Bonus: Try chromatography with sprinkles or food coloring!

Activity 4: OBSERVING & MIXING MATTER

Background Information: Matter is anything that has mass and takes up space. Matter is all around you. Most matter on Earth occurs in three common states: solid, liquid, or gas.

Sometimes matter can change. A physical change is a change in one or more physical properties of matter without any change in chemical properties. In other words, the matter stays the same kind of matter, but it may look or feel different. A chemical change occurs whenever matter changes into an entirely different substance with different chemical properties.

STEM Career Connections: A chemist is someone who studies the properties of matter and how matter interacts with energy.

Materials Needed: paper plate, paper, color tabs, small cup with water, pipette

Directions:

  1. Take a piece of paper. Do something to the paper to change it in some way.

  2. Chances are you ripped, cut, folded, wrote on, or crumpled the paper. If that is the case, you made a physical change to the paper because the paper is still paper, it just looks or feels different or has a different size.

  3. Get a cup of water, pipette, plate, and two-three color tabs.

  4. Use your senses of sight, smell, and touch to observe and describe the water and color tabs using words. What color is each? What texture is each? What state of matter is each? What else do you notice?

  5. Spread the color tabs out on the plate. Make a prediction about what you think will happen when you add water to the color tabs.

  6. Use the pipette to add water to each color tab. What do you observe? What color did each tab create? What color is made when you mix the original colors together?

  7. If you noticed any bubbling or fizzing, then you observed a chemical change to the color tab as a new gas was produced.

Bonus: Can you use the color tabs to create a color wheel that includes red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple?

Background Information: Paint is a liquid material that, when applied to a solid surface and allowed to dry, adds a film-like layer. Paint is often applied to something to change its color.

Paint is typically made with three main ingredients, a pigment, a resin, and a solvent. The pigment gives the paint a color. The resin helps the pigment stick together and stick to the surface on which the paint is applied. The solvent, usually water or oil, helps keep the paint wet so clumps don’t form and the paint can be applied evenly.There are lots of different types of paints used for many different purposes.

STEM Career Connections: A painter is someone who uses paint to change the appearance of a surface. A painter often needs to prepare the surface that will be painted, mix paints according to the needs of the project, and apply paint with tools appropriate for the job.

Activity 5: DIY PAINT

Directions:

  1. Measure 1 part (1 tablespoon) glue and put it in the cup.

  2. Measure ½ part (½ tablespoon) water and add it to the cup with the glue.

  3. Gently stir the glue and water together until smooth.

  4. Add a couple of drops of food coloring, to the paint mixture base. The more drops you add, the more intense the color will be.

  5. Mix in the food coloring until even.

  6. Make as many colors of paint as you want for your project using the same recipe as above.

  7. Use a paintbrush to paint a picture on a piece of paper.

Bonus: Make puffy paint by mixing equal parts glue and shaving cream and adding a few drops of food coloring.

Materials Needed: glue, cup, water, food coloring, paper, paintbrush, measuring spoon