Things you'll need to decide on as you plan: colour

Bringing together two sets of constraints

Learners: Distinguishing–eliciting–connecting

How will you:

• separate perceptual colour and spectral colour
• separate altering a colour by adding frequencies from altering a colour by subtracting frequencies
• identify the role of reflection in colour perception
• connect to how painters mix colours
• connect to coloured lighting
• connect to the colours on a computer screen

Teacher Tip: These are all related to findings about children's ideas from research. The teaching activities will provide some suggestions. So will colleagues, near and far.

Focusing on the physics:

Representing–noticing–recording. How will you:

• connect dispersion to refraction
• link colour and frequency
• separate perceptual colour and spectral colour
• link absorption to the colour of an object

Teacher Tip: Connecting what is experienced with what is written and drawn is essential to making sense of the connections between the theoretical world of physics and the lived-in world of the children. Don't forget to exemplify this action.