Forums

The topics in this forum are so dynamic! Thanks to all who are reading and sharing :} As I chatted with some elementary educators, we began to explore the use of color as an inquiry tool in kindergarten and elementary school. This led me to browse the resources available in the Learning Center and to highlight some journal articles, book chapters, and sims that offer lesson ideas for teachers. I started out with the great article by Peggy Ashbrook and then found myself amused by adapting the PhET sims: Pixel Peeping that easily adapts to an elementary classroom. Layering colored liquids, doing paper chromotography, examining the criptic coloration or animals, making patterns on wrapping paper appear and disappear, creating a black rose - gosh, there are so many ways to use color to invite children to observe, record, find patterns, explain, and yes-- building science skills all the while! We might start by reading and commenting on Peggy's article and then explore the resoruces in the attached collection to glean ideas to share. Better yet, please share your strategies for using color as an inquiry tool in elementary school. Thanks a bunch...patty By: Peggy Ashbrook Grade Level: Elementary School Examining Colors, Color Perception, and Sight the sims pixel site: http://phet.colorado.edu/en/contributions/view/3413 The attached collection on 'Colors Open Elementary Inquiry Collection' contains a variety of resources from the Learning Center. Please note that some of these resources are book chapters or journal articles. As such, they may have a cost associated with placing them in your personal library for your consideration and use. My goal was to identify the articles for you. Thanks for noting that there is a cost associated with some of the resources. If you are not a member of NSTA, you might consider joining since many ressources are free to members and your membership is a vote for excellence in science education.

Colors Open Elementary Inquiry Collection (7 items)

Favorite Demonstration: More to the Color of Roses Than Meets the Eyes

- Journal Article

The Early Years: Color Investigations

- Journal Article

Matching Background Color

- Book Chapter

View All 7 Items

Hi Patty,

Thanks for sharing such great resources for teaching about color. Another resource I've used is the Magic School Bus book The Magic School Bus Makes a Rainbow ISBN: 978 0590 92251 7. The Young Scientists Club has a learning kit that helps students explore light and color.

I just read the article 'Science Shorts: Seeing Color' from Science & Children. In this article, students learn about the color spectrum using internet sources and a hands-on activity using flowers. I really like the cross-ciricular connections with technology, art, and botany in this lesson.

Thanks for the great ideas - I will be "teaching" an inquiry based science lesson to the other teachers in my PD class. This is a great subject to teach, especially since I teach Kindergarten. Thanks again for the info!

Hi Deanna, Thanks for your post and please keep us in the loop. We really are interested in how you use these Learning Center resources to teach others in your PD class. It will be just great if you could post again and share what you do with us. We really look forward to hearing all about it. What fun!! Chat with you later ~ patty

As an elementary education graduate student currently enrolled in a teaching science course, I was very interested in your post regarding how “color” could be utilized as an effective inquiry tool, considering the fascination with colors experienced by many elementary school students. I found the posted journal articles and book chapters in this forum to be great resources and added several to my NSTA library. Thank you! While doing a volunteer program at the Maryland Science Center, I noticed they had several engaging color demonstrations for children. I have included a weblink to one incorporating Benham’s wheel at the bottom of this post. During a demonstration that involved colors to engage students in learning how the human eyeball functions, the science center instructor warned that we might not all have the same experiences due to our individual variances in recognizing colors. That made me curious about how prevalent colorblindness is in children. Online research states that although color vision deficiency, also called colorblindness, affects less than 1 percent (0.5%) of girls, it impacts 8 percent of boys. I was curious if any of the participants in this forum had encountered the need to make accommodations for students with color vision deficiencies; and if you have, what types of accommodations worked the best. Thank you again! http://www.mdsci.org/science-encounters/Demo/Benham.html

Hi Pamela, First of all thank you for the demonstration link. I will explore it soon after I read through some of the forums and chat with teachers. How fortunate you are to be able to link color explorations in science with your curriculum work. And thank you for raising the question of color deficiencies experienced by some students. As I understand 'color blindness' is inherited from the mother who passes that particular gene from her father to her son. Color blindness linked this way usually means that the grandfather and the grandchild can share the trait for not discerning red and green. Students with this trait can discern other colors, some more vividly, and generally 'see' red and green as various shades of gray. I have had male students with this trait - and often they are already aware of it later in their academic careers. And like Mendel's Laws inform us, brothers do not necessarily share this inherited trait. As a teacher of elementary science, I would try to discern how children experienced color by allowing them to share their descriptions and perhaps connect the color they see to a box of crayolas with a 100 or more colors in a fun activity. Also, it may be important to ask the school administrator who has the information if there are any children with known visual differences within a class. Since many children have explored colors in pre-kindergarten or preschool, a note may be present on a child's chart or the child may even be cognizant of not 'seeing' colors the same as other students. it is improtant to devise activities that highlight the fact that we all may visualize colors differently. (Your demo may be good for this if adapted to the appropriate age.) I ensure that owning a particular heredity pattern does not differentiate one student from another. It is instructional and really interestering to students to talk about the anthropological studies on color ( I may go and find some references and add them to this note later.) For example, many cultures who live in the forest have many words for green and 'see' green very differently from you and I. Also, some Eskimo societies have many words for snow. So, not just seeing 'green' or 'white' is adequate for describing the environment. These linguistical studies showcase the importance of language and color differentiation. What are your thoughts on how you would interview students while they are exploring concepts of color, Pamela? Your first post to this forum was so thoughtful and full of sharing that I really look forward to carrying on this discussion with you as well as with others interested in this gateway to inquiry. ~patty

Golly, I really can get side-tracked (in a GREAT way) by doing a quick search in the Learning Center. A recent conversation took me to language and color so I entered these 2 keywords in an Advanced Search page and met this resource which i will attach below. Lily Pad Venn Diagrams pops into my view for two reasons as a potentially great resource for elementary teachers - first, it explores amphibians and color; and secondly, it may use Venn diagrams. This strategy is something that teachers were discussing on another thread called living vs. non-living and one teacher replied with the concept of using Venn diagrams to categorize a third entity - that which was alive and which now isn't. See what happens to me...this led me on to dinosaurs and fossils and I created a collection of resources on that topic. I just can't keep the concept maps from flowing in my quest to explore the many resources in the LC. Well, Everyone! Shall we explore Lily Pad Venn Diagrams and see what pops up? I'm going to. Please share if you do, too :} ~patty

Attachments

Lily Pad Venn Diagrams (Book Chapter)

Hi Patricia, Thank you for the great feedback. I will remember your crayola box activity when I am teaching. I will also remember that a teacher should be mindful that differences in culture and prior knowledge play important roles in determining if colorblindness is a factor or not. I believe careful observation is always important. I have copied part of an article that addresses how a student might display color vision deficiency in regular class room activities from the Optometric Physicians of Washington website. http://www.eyes.org/eyecare/detail.cfm?Parent=34&Article=128 Color Vision Deficiency by Marianne Deal Stephens “A child with a Color Vision Deficiency might: • Give alternate names to colors, particularly non-primary shades. • Draw with an alternate color scheme. The drawings might include green skin or hair, black tree trunks, or brown grass. • Call things white that others call light pink or light green. • Describe as similar some shades of reddish and greenish colors (i.e., peach and light green, or evergreen and cranberry).” I appreciated your insight that the school administrator may have information regarding students who experience visual differences. The above article also shares that some states and school districts require color vision screening, usually in kindergarten. The article does stress that these screenings should not replace an examination by an eye care professional, (Stephens, 2011). One accommodation I thought could be helpful would be to include a pattern based project choice for science lessons with color projects. Not only does a pattern based project eliminate the color issue, but as shared by Stephens (2011), individuals with color vision deficiency may have improved skills at detecting subtle differences in patterns and shading. Below is a link to an article, "What Teachers, School Nurses, and Parents, Should Know About Being Colorblind," by Dr. Terrace L. Waggoner. This article has information on other accommodations that can help students with color vision deficiencies. http://colorvisiontesting.com/color4.htm

And Patricia - I meant to add at the end of my post that 'Lily Pad Venn Diagrams' sounds like a very beneficial science teaching tool. I look forward to seeing what is posted in this forum regarding Lily Pad Venn Diagrams, and I will also research myself. Thanks again!

Pam, thank you for the great descriptions of strategies for recognizing and dealing with visual discrepancies among students --this is a wonderful post to share :} I, too, am waiting for others to find us and chat about the Venn diagrams ...let's see who chimes in.. Don't be shy now if you are a reader --you are only a few clicks away from sharing with us :} ~patty

I believe Venn diagrams are excellent learning tools for spatially engaging students in the important learning concept of ‘comparing and contrasting’. I loved the Lily Pad Diagrams as described in David Alexander’s, Hop into Action: the Amphibian Curriculum Guide for Grades K-4. Alexander’s Lily Pad Venn Diagrams add interesting relevancy for identifying similarities and differences between Amphibians through the themed Lily Pad diagram shape. A science teacher could also incorporate colors; both with students adding green shading to the lily pads and students listing criteria with different colored markers. I think you could also extend this concept to other science subject matter, i.e.: comparing various species of fish utilizing a Fishbowl or Fishpond Venn Diagram; comparing different species of hoofed animals using a Hoof Venn Diagram; you could even incorporate different types of leaves in the Venn Diagram design to compare and contrast different types of plants. Students could add colors to all of these.

Thanks for all the posts on the forum! I have been looking into how to teach the light standards for third grade in Hawaii. The standards here don't really go into color, but I think that would be a great way to get the kids to extend their learning after we are done. And by the nature of the inquiry topics, it will help the students begin to use some of the scientific process skills.

Looking forward to trying this with Jr. GEMS also. Such great ways to mix creativity with science.