Color Mixing with RGB LED #1754

This is a discussion for the Color Mixing with RGB LED Experiment. Feel free to connect with the Learning Team here, or to discuss experiment tips, ask questions, leave comments or suggest experiment variations here.
rgbmixtn

Is it just me (because I’m old) or is it hard to see the right pin locations without a magnifier. Has anyone done this with students before and do students see these without magnification. I can see setting up some magnification stands when doing this. I feel so accomplished using the potentiometer!

2 Likes

No, its not you. I too have trouble seeing the pin locations. Along with a small hand lens, I might also consider getting another breadboard with larger/bolder coordinates.

1 Like

Where does this lesson fit in with your curriculum?
This doesn’t really fit in with my curriculum but it would be a great activity to challenge the kids with some simple coding tweaks. I think students would be very surprised to learn the science behind a pixel.

Which part or parts of the lesson would your students need extra support to be successful?
As in previous lessons, students might have trouble manipulating the wires and LED pins (I actually had a little trouble with the LED pins myself). Additionally, seeing the locations on the breadboard might be a bit difficult as well. I would keep a few hand lenses on hand for those visually challenged (myself included).

If you were to teach this lesson to your class, describe your role during the class. What does a successful teacher actively do during this lesson?
I would take some time to model each step for my students. I think it is easy to make some simple mistakes here. I would highlight some of the things I personally difficult as well. If students saw that I had a little trouble with some of this, they might not get so frustrated. For those who did not have any difficulty, I would challenge them to change the blink rate as well as the color values. I tried this on my own and was able to get a good range of colors.

If you were to teach this lesson to your class, describe your student’s role during the class. What does “student success” look like?
As always, successful students would be those who were persistent, had good attitudes and could even explain the “how” behind this activity.

1 Like
  1. Where does this lesson fit in with your curriculum (if the lesson is not a fit for the class you teach, how could the lesson be modified so that it is applicable to your curriculum)?
    As the lesson is written it is too basic for my math class. However, if taken a step further as in “RGB Ratios, Decimals and Percents” then it is a valuable lesson for reviewing ratios, decimals, and percentages because this is always something students seem to have difficulty with. By having a practical application to use these skills hopefully it would help students to retain the knowledge.
  2. Which part or parts of the lesson would your students need extra support in order to be successful?
    Wiring the board would continue to be a problem with the students until they have had enough practice using the Arduino to make it a simple process. They may also have a problem with changing the values of the colors, not understanding at first that 0 means more color and 255 means less. I know I found that confusing at first.
  3. If you were to teach this lesson to your class, describe your role during the class. What does a successful teacher actively do during this lesson?
    To provide support to the students while they do self-directed learning. Ask upper level questions to promote higher level thinking and applications.
  4. If you were to teach this lesson to your class, describe your student’s role during the class. What does “student success” look like?
    Being able to wire the Arduino, LED, and Board and with my lesson to interpret the ratios, decimals and percentages.
1 Like

It’s not just you I have the same problem. I have a little magnifying glass to help me see. Some of my students also have this problem.

1 Like

I too had difficulty with the pins but the coding was awesome. While I do teach spectra I don’t teach this specific concept but I thought it was fun and a great challenge for the kids if I get several more kits. Teaching students about reading directions, attention to detail and working through a process can be taught in any class at almost any level. Thank you for the experience.

2 Likes

I don’t think this fits with our current standards in 6th grade, but I always think experiences like this are valuable! I would use this one for a STEM lesson for sure.

I think just making sure the wiring is done correctly would be important, although it is easy to troubleshoot once you try running the code. My students would need more background in coding to progress through the whole lesson where the code is being changed.

I think I would model how to find the correct spots when wiring on the document camera. This might make it easier for me to see what I am doing, too!

Students would be really focused on following the model and directions for this lesson. I can imagine the reaction when they finally see it work- I was so excited when I got all three colors, then saw it strobe and change colors!

1 Like

Attention to detail- that is what I was thinking about as I was doing this myself. I know my students really could use practice with that. It makes a big difference in these activities!

1 Like

Where does this lesson fit in with your curriculum (if the lesson is not a fit for the class you teach, how could the lesson be modified so that it is applicable to your curriculum)?
I really enjoyed this lesson. It does not fit into my current curriculum, but I can see this as a STEM activity that I could use in connection with a break-out box activity as a task to complete for a clue. I was also thinking that in STEM club this could be a launch activity for students to design a test to see the differences between the colors in air and underwater. (as a tie-in to our underwater Sea-Perch ROVS).
Which part or parts of the lesson would your students need extra support in order to be successful? I think it would take some time for students to not be frustrated by the size of the breadboards and the proper locating of the pin positions, but once they were successful they would be impressed and willing to take the time to be patient.
If you were to teach this lesson to your class, describe your role during the class. What does a successful teacher actively do during this lesson? I would have a model set-up and I would walk around as student partners worked on this answering questions and problem solving.
If you were to teach this lesson to your class, describe your student’s role during the class. What does “student success” look like? Practice, practice, practice and some problem solving. Try and try again until they were successful.

1 Like

I really like the math tie-in and a have already requested that my fav math teacher wait-list herself for the next Astroschool session.

3 Likes

I am so glad you are getting a math teacher from your school to sign up for this! I am finding it so difficult to get other math teachers in my district involved in doing anything STEM even though the M stands for Math. And a lot of them are doing some STEM and do not even realize it. I would love to see more STEM instruction happening because it helps students become more self directed in their learning, peaks their interest more, shows them how practical math really is, and has them asking questions, I am in the STEM Cadre for the County and almost all of the teachers involved are science or technology. The rest are Elementary teachers or Teaching Coaches. There is not even a math coach involved that I know of. If anyone has ideas to get more math teachers involved please pass them on to me!!

2 Likes

I don’t think this activity woyuld fit well into my curriculum. I could see using it as a fun STEM Lab in a Biology or Anatomy lesson when talking about how the eyes work but it is not currently in our standards. The set up was difficult and I would slowly go through the steps with my students. Putting in the pins is always a challange for me. Having the colored pictures was the only thing that saved me. For me success would be setting it up and running it correctly. after I fell more comfortable assembling I would feel more comfortable with this lesson. I did like finding the values for the colors. It would work well when talking about wavelength showing the students that the colors all have different values.

2 Likes

I have a SeaPerch team. I love the idea of water vs air! Do you have ideas on how to do the water part?

1 Like
  1. Where does this lesson fit in with your curriculum (if the lesson is not a fit for the class you teach, how could the lesson be modified so that it is applicable to your curriculum)?

    I am very excited about this lesson. I teach this in my physics class. I have been trying to come up with a light lab that I can do with my class. I plan on using this lab pretty much as is. I loved the color wheel showing how to mix the color pin to get different colors like magenta. I would add an explanation about the where the 0 and the 255 are coming from.

  2. Which part or parts of the lesson would your students need extra support in order to successful?

    I think that this lab is very simple and straight forward. I think that they might need a little explanation about the how the pins match up to the different colors on the color wheel. I also teach a little bit about potentiometers in the electricity chapter. This lab would be a good introduction.

  3. If you were to teach this lesson to your class, describe your role during the class. What does a successful teacher actively do during this lesson?

    I will teach this lesson next school year. I would be responsible for the initial set-up. During the experiment, I would be a felicitator leading the discussion and answering questions but having the students look at the data (in this case the changing of the colors) to make their own conclusions.

  4. If you were to teach this lesson to your class, describe your student’s role during the class. What does “student success” look like?

I will teach this lesson next year. What I will have the students go through the lab questions that same as I did. I will then have them spend a little more time playing around will the values and getting more of the colors on the color wheel.

1 Like

Thank you for your feedback, if you or anyone else is interested in learning how to modify and personalize Because Learning lessons, send me an email at: lindsey@becauselearning.com. It is super easy and a nice way make each of our lessons a perfect fit for your classroom.

I felt like I was going cross-eyed trying to line up the RGB into four different holes with one pin being in another line. (I’m sure that isn’t the correct language, but you probably get my meaning.) Plus the RGB kept falling out when I let go of it, until I realized I could push it in further.

1 Like

Do they make larger breadboards? I’m guessing no since the pins might not fit then. Hmmmm.

1 Like

This is my favorite lesson so far! I loved getting the lights to flash and changing the speed by changing the code. I’m still working on getting the potentiometer to work. It didn’t seem to change anything other than making it all go fast. I tried moving the wire from 0 to another number, and the first number I tried, the light actually turned off when I turned the potentiometer all the way clockwise. I couldn’t replicate the experience though, after fiddling around with the potentiometer.
I liked trying to get different colors, but I mostly got red, green, and blue. I think I will try it all fresh tomorrow, so I can show some students in the library.
This will be a hit, just as an activity and changing the code to get different results. I will, of course, show it to my science people. But I think it’s just fun, even in the library.

1 Like

I had a student struggling with a concept for their final project in Art. He was in my class one day while I was playing, I mean working, on this project. Instead of continuing with the project myself, I had him take over. Not only did he finish in record time but just took off experimenting on his own. As you can guess the tinkering sparked an idea and his project was a huge success. He used color mixing and music created by another student to create an awesome visual and audio experience for the visitor. Since time was tight and limited resources, this was dubbed “1.0” and a “2.0” with a grand vision is already in the works for next year’s show.
This will work in my Engineering Principles course next Fall for sure. My students should not have any problems in performing the experiment. We have done something similar before and the only problem they have is me talking and delaying their project time.

1 Like