Using a Prism to View a Rainbow

The Colors of White Light

This activity is to have students understand that WHITE LIGHT is actually made up of a SPECTRUM of colors.

                 Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet

Too cloudy....had to wait 2 days for the Sun!

Materials

• Prism
• Flashlight
• White wall, white ceiling, or white poster board
• Lots of natural sunlight, flashlight, or overhead projector light

Directions:

• Turn on a flashlight.
• Ask the children a question, "What color is light?"
• Tell them that we will be doing an activity/experiment to get the answer to our question.
• Put a prism in a very sunny window or have the students hold up a prism to the natural light or the flashlight, etc.
• The students should OBSERVE a rainbow on the wall, ceiling, or poster board.
• Discuss the students' observations.
• Have students SKETCH a picture of what they observed. 

 

Explanation: White light hits the glass prism. When the light hits the prism, it is slowed down and bent. When the colors come out the other side, they are bent again. Each color (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet) is bent by a different amount and the colors are separated.


More examples of light bending!
Materials needed: prism and straws or crayons
Directions: Place a prism over the straws or crayons. Have Fun!

Explanation: Light travels fastest through air. When light enters the glass prism it slows down and changes direction a little, making the straws or crayons look bent.




Have fun with rainbows!

 

Rainbow Tally Chart and Graph

Math Lesson

In the previous lesson, the kids learned that white light is really made up of the 7 colors in the spectrum.
In this activity, children can conduct a survey to find out their family and friends' favorite colors in the spectrum. They can follow up that activity by making a graph to display their data.

Materials

• clipboard or notebook
• pencil
• ruler
• crayons or markers

Directions

clipart by www.graphicsfactory.com

• Have students make a list or chart of the 7 colors of the color spectrum (remember ROY G BIV).

                *red
                *orange
                *yellow
                *green
                *blue
                *indigo
                *violet

• Have students poll their family and friends as to their favorite color. They should mark a tally for each vote.

• Next they could count the votes and create a tally chart or frequency chart with their data.

Tally Chart

   

Frequency Chart

• Older children should use the data in the tally chart to create a bar or other graph to display their results.The graph should include:

                     ~ title
                    ~ 7 columns (for the 7 colors)
                    ~ 2 labeled axis
                     ~a numerical scale starting at zero

• Finally students should explain their data (oral or written). Which color had the most votes? Which color had the fewest votes? Etc.
• More advanced math students can also find the mean, medium, mode, maximum, minimum, and range for the data.