We take a break from the opportunity to define these new colors. The red-blue combination is defined
as “magenta”, the blue-green as “cyan” and the red-green as . . .”yellow!” Coming face to face with
their observations as well as their operational definition of primary colors causes the students to
deduce that indeed yellow must not be considered a primary color.
Next students are asked to mix a puddle that combines all three. Figure 2 represents the appearance
of the cotton swabs of all seven of the test colors produced in this experience. We define the
combination of all three as “white” though the appearance is seldom pure white. We ask the students
to then develop a “recipe for white” that they could share with another group to see if they could
experience the same whiteness.
Finally students are asked to become masters of color mixing by creating a
work of art that depicts their understanding of the color combinations. I usually
ask that all of the color combinations be represented in some way. High school
students usually produce a wide variety of artistic “masterpieces” from a simple
outdoor scene to the wildest “Jackson Pollock-esque” creations. Students
soon see that the variety of colors, shades and hues on their plate go well
beyond the seven colors given names in this experience yet are created with
just three different types of colors.
Once the process of “seeing” color is mastered students can
easily come to terms with why the primary color of pigments
might be considered different from the primary colors of light.
The following day we share a little bit about the human eye with the students. They learn that their
retina is peppered with t hree different type of cone-shaped nerves that are commonly called red cones,
blue cones, and green cones to identify the primary color of light sensitivity for each type of nerve. The
fact that millions and millions of different colors, shades and hues of light can be interpreted with an
efficiency of just three different types of nerves is astounding and truly something for which we all
should be thankful. A quick magnified look at their cellphone, TV, or computer screen shows that our
eyes can be “fooled” into perceiving millions of colors by simply mixing carrying intensities of red blue
and green pixels.
STEAMed Magazine
8
April 2016 Edition