KidsSTEM: Color Wheel Spinner

Take and Makes for this project will be available starting this Friday, March 12, 2021.

Watch this project at: https://youtu.be/8avBll-4qnc?list=PLMEg2Dd0dSFctLfDQxsL5SmuE8zkwQFmu

Supplies:

Materials included in kit: circle template, cardboard, piece of string about 36”

Materials needed from home: crayons, colored pencils or markers, scissors, glue stick, sharp pen or pencil (to poke holes)

Directions:

  1. Take template of color wheel or print out a copy below.
  2. Color in the sections red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple. For an accurate color wheel, red should be opposite green, yellow opposite purple, and blue opposite orange.
  3. Cut out your circle template.
  4. Glue your circle to the piece of cardboard and cut it out again.
  5. Carefully poke two holes in the center of the color wheel, side by side.
  6. Thread your string through both holes, then tie the ends in a knot.
  7. Hold each end of the string. The cardboard circle should be about midway between the ends. Wind the string by spinning the wheel in a motion similar to a twirling a jump rope.
  8. Gently pull the string tight to get the wheel spinning. If you continue moving your hands in an in and out motion, the circle should continue to spin.

Explanation:

As the wheel spins, what do you notice about the colors? The colors disappear!


As the wheel is spinning fast, your eyes blend the colors together and the color wheel looks white.

White light, like sunlight, is made of all the colors in the rainbow. When light hits a colored object, most of it is absorbed and only one color is reflected. A red object, for example, absorbs almost the full spectrum of light, reflecting red only. When the color wheel was spinning fast enough, the colors changed faster than your eyes could see the individual colors and send the signals to your brain, so the reflections of all of the colors blended together and you saw white light!