Science at key stage 3 (Year 8)
Unit 8K: Light
Section 9: What is a spectrum?
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Objectives |
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- that white light can be dispersed to give a range of different colours
- why the spectrum has seven colours
- to use scientific knowledge to suggest reasons for physical phenomena
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Activities |
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Outcomes |
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Children: |
- Demonstrate how white light can produce a spectrum when shone through a prism, and describe the work of Isaac Newton in this field. Ask questions about colours,
eg Can you really see seven colours?
- Provide pupils with prisms and ask them to explore and record the images they see in them.
- Allow pupils to make their own spectrum and challenge them to suggest how the coloured rays could be remixed. Help them to achieve this, using a second prism, and develop the idea that white light consists of a mixture of different coloured lights, which can be separated and combined.
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- identify the colours of the spectrum
- describe how white light is dispersed by a prism to give a range of different colours
- describe how a spectrum can be recombined to form white light
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Points to note |
- Most people cannot distinguish indigo in the spectrum, and it is thought that Newton included this because of his belief in the mystical significance of the number seven.
- Extension: ask pupils to find out how a rainbow is formed.
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This unit is divided into sections. Each section contains a sequence of
activities with related objectives and outcomes. You can view this unit by
moving through the sections or print/download the whole unit.
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