LED Lights and Color Spectrum Activity

Creating and blending colors of light; creating a performance based on the visible light spectrum.

Grade Level Focus: 4th Grade
School: 21st Century Primary Center
Teaching Artist: Jordan Knecht
Classroom Teacher: Andrea Mele
Materials: Lithium 3-volt coin batteries, primary color LED lights; red, orange, yellow, green, blue and violet yarn; drawing utensils, paper.
Class Periods: 3
Unit Connections: Colors, Shapes, and Symmetry
Sculptures that Move

Summary Blend LED light colors. Recreate the visible color spectrum in both drawing and performance.

Lesson Sequence
Lesson 1:

Figure out how to make the LEDs light up with a battery. Discuss the electric circuit made with the battery, lights, and wire.
Put two different-color LEDs next to each other to create a secondary color, and record the results.

Lesson 2:

Discuss visible color spectrum and the way it appears in rainbows. Share the Roy G. Biv mnemonic to remember the colors in order of wavelength, where red is the longest.
Draw the color spectrum in order.

Lessons 3:

Create a class performance of the visible color spectrum. For example, make waves from colored yarn arranged in order of longest to shortest wavelength.

Next Generation Science Standards
4-PS3-2
4-PS3-4

National Visual Arts Standards See National Visual Arts Standards for specific grade level content for these Anchor Standards:

Anchor Standard 1
Anchor Standard 2
Anchor Standard 3
Anchor Standard 5