https://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulations/color-vision
Lab Overview
Colour Vision
This lab uses the PhET Color Vision simulation to help students understand how humans perceive colour and how different wavelengths of light interact with the eye’s photoreceptor cells. Through experimentation with coloured light and filters, students explore how the eye detects colours, the role of cone cells, and how colour mixing works. This interactive lab provides a foundation for understanding light, vision, and colour perception.
Learning Objectives
Aligned with the Victorian Curriculum, students will:
- VCSSU130: Describe the properties of light and how it interacts with different materials to produce colour.
- VCSSU131: Explain how human vision perceives colour based on light wavelengths and receptor cells.
By the end of this lab, students should be able to:
- Explain how the eye perceives different colours through light wavelengths.
- Describe the role of cone cells in detecting colours.
- Understand additive colour mixing and its application in real-world colour perception.
ACARA Digital Literacy Capabilities
- Communicate: Sharing insights from experiments in an accessible format.
- Evaluate information: Assessing how the eye perceives colours in different lighting.
Lab Instructions
- Access the Simulation: PhET Color Vision Simulation.
- Experiment with Primary Colours:
- Use the red, green, and blue light sources to see how each colour stimulates cone cells in the eye.
- Observe the response of different photoreceptors as colours are combined.
- Explore Colour Mixing:
- Combine two primary colours (e.g., red and green) and observe how they produce secondary colours.
- Experiment with all three colours (red, green, and blue) to see white light formation through additive colour mixing.
- Test with Filters:
- Use different coloured filters to block or allow certain wavelengths and observe changes in colour perception.
Assessment Questions
- How does the eye perceive colour, and what role do cone cells play in colour vision?
- Explain how combining red, green, and blue light can produce white light.
- Describe the difference between additive and subtractive colour mixing, providing examples of each.
- How do filters affect the colour of light perceived, and why?
Teacher Notes
Integrating with Lessons:
- This lab is ideal for units on light and optics, specifically when teaching about wavelengths, colour perception, and the nature of light.
- Encourage students to relate their observations to real-life applications of colour vision, such as screens, lighting, and art.
Common Misconceptions:
- Students may think that objects have inherent colours; clarify that colour perception depends on the light reflected or absorbed by objects.
- Reinforce that additive colour mixing with light differs from subtractive mixing, as seen with paint or pigments.
Extension Activities:
- Challenge students to explore colour blindness by simulating how people with different types of colour vision deficiencies see colours.
- Have students research real-world applications of colour theory in technology, such as RGB colour models in screens.
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