The science behind this DIY will show you how the colours of a Newton’s disc blend together and are merged as a blended white light by our brains and eyes. Sir Isaac Newton famously discovered the colours in white light in an experiment of his when he used two prisms to split a ray of white light into its coloured components. Because each colour is refracted differently, each bends at a different angle, resulting in the separation of white light into the colours of the spectrum, much like a rainbow!
A simpler way to show how the different colours come together to make up white light is known as the Newton Disc. This disc can be made by creating a colour wheel and spinning it very fast. This experiment was final proof that white light is made up of all the colours of the visible spectrum. Red, orange, yellow, green, blue and violet… as well as every shade in between.
Materials Required
coloured pencils x7
Yarn (90cm)
Toothpick x1
Paper x1
Cardboard x1
Glue x1
CD x1
Paper x1
Scissors x1
Ruler x1
How-To Steps (With Videos)
Here are the simple step-by-step instructions (with videos) to create Newton’s disc experiment. Have a look!
Step 1:
Collect all the materials you’ll need for the project.
Step 2:
Glue a white piece of paper on your cardboard using your glue stick.
Step 3:
Outline your CD on to the white paper side of the cardboard. Use your scissors to cut the outline.
Step 4:
Using a ruler, divide your disc into 6 sections and colour each section a different colour using your coloured pencils.
Step 5:
Poke the center of your coloured disc with a toothpick and stick your piece of string or yarn through the hole.
Step 6:
You did it! Wind up your yarn up and pull at the ends of the string to spin the disc. Observe how the colours change!
Share with the Twinner Community!
Share your creative talents with our Twinner community on the Twin App!
You can do this in two easy steps!
Download the Twin App and create your account
Search for the challenge by its name in the app (i.e. “Newton Disc”) and upload a video of your creation today!
Twin App is an educational app that kids can play educational games on. Inside we have Trivia, DIY projects, and Adventures that have many learning games for kids. Both the Twin App and Twin Science Kits teach STEM (Science,Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) & Arts subjects and 21st century skills.
Harness the power of the Sun and join Twing on a fun adventure to help bring electricity back to the island in the Twin App!
An island has lost its electricity! Twing needs your help bringing power back! Go on a fun learning adventure with Twing and discover the secret behind solar energy and the Sun by playing fun games and watching interactive videos.
Here’s a Preview of What You’ll Learn!
Renewable vs. Non Renewable Energy
Before we learn about solar energy, we first need to now the term renewable energy! Renewable energy is energy from sources that are naturally replenishing, including carbon neutral sources like sunlight, wind, rain, tides, waves, and geothermal heat. These clean energy sources are available in unlimited supply!
Separately, forms of energy like oil, natural gas, coal, and nuclear energy are nonrenewable and can be depleted. Oil, natural gas, and coal are collectively called fossil fuels and a major problem with fossil fuels, aside from their being in limited supply, is that burning them releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Rising levels carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is the main cause of global warming and climate change.
Solar Energy & How Can We Use it
Solar power is energy from the sun that is converted into thermal or electrical energy. Solar energy is the cleanest and most abundant renewable energy source available. Solar technologies such as solar panels can harness this energy for a variety of uses, including generating electricity, providing light, and heating water, and more!
Understanding the Sun & Solar Panels
The Sun has multiple layers like a walnut! Just like a walnut, the Sun has a kernel in its center, which we call the core! This is where energy is created. The energy produced here is transmitted to the other layers of the Sun.
The energy in the core is transmitted through energy packets called photons! Photons are the basic units of light. Once photons leave the Sun and reach the earth, we can use solar panels to capture them and convert the energy into thermal and electrical energy!
Fun Facts!
The core of the Sun is around 15.6 million degrees, or equivalent to 100 billion tons of dynamite exploding every second!
Did you know that it takes a long time for a photon to travel from the core to reach the surface? In fact, it takes hundreds of thousands of years!
Renewable sources of energy and technology can help save our planet from climate change!
You’ve learned a ton about the Sun and solar energy! Learn more in the Twin App and help Twing bring electricity back to the island in our adventure titled “Harness the Sun.”
Also, be sure to complete the activity “Make a Sun Model” in the adventure or here on our website!
Twin App is an educational app that kids can play educational games on. Inside we have Trivia, DIY projects, and Adventures that have many learning games for kids. Both the Twin App and Twin Science Kits teach STEM (Science,Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) & Arts subjects and 21st century skills.
The Sun, situated at the heart of our Solar System, radiates light and energy essential for life on Earth. Without the Sun’s potent energy, life as we know it would not exist.
Just as Earth is composed of various layers, the Sun also possesses distinct layers, although it’s important to note that the Sun is entirely gaseous with no solid surface. These layers exhibit unique traits and are assigned specific names. This project is a great way to visualize and learn the name of the layers! After your project, go a step further and go on Twin App‘s learning adventure titled “Harness the Sun” and start researching about the Sun on your own and become an expert!
Materials Required
Play-Doh in red, orange, light orange, dark yellow, yellow, and white (you can make you own Play Dough by watching this DIY video here).
Knife x1
Adult Supervision
How-To Steps (With Videos)
Here are the simple step-by-step instructions (with videos) to create a simple sun model. Have a look!
Step 1: Collect all the materials you’ll need for the project.
Step 2: Wrap your coloured play dough around each other in the following order: Red (center/core), orange, dark yellow, yellow, and white.
Step 3: Under adult supervision, cut your model sun in half and observe the layers of the Sun.
As an added bonus you can label the layers of the sun by sticking tooth picks with a piece of paper glued to the end and labeling them as such from the inside out:
Core
Radiative zone
Convention zone
Photosphere
Chromosphere
Corona
Share with the Twinner Community!
Share your creative talents with our Twinner community on the Twin App!
You can do this in two easy steps!
Download the Twin App and create your account
Search for the challenge by its name in the app (i.e. “Newton Disc”) and upload a video of your creation today!
Read more about the Sun or download the Twin App and complete the Harness the Sun adventure!Watch the trailer here:
Twin App is an educational app that kids can play educational games on. Inside we have Trivia, DIY projects, and Adventures that have many learning games for kids. Both the Twin App and Twin Science Kits teach STEM (Science,Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) & Arts subjects and 21st century skills.
The science behind this DIY will show you how the colours of a Newton’s disc blend together and are merged as a blended white light by our brains and eyes. Sir Isaac Newton famously discovered the colours in white light in an experiment of his when he used two prisms to split a ray of white light into its coloured components. Because each colour is refracted differently, each bends at a different angle, resulting in the separation of white light into the colours of the spectrum, much like a rainbow!
A simpler way to show how the different colours come together to make up white light is known as the Newton Disc. This disc can be made by creating a colour wheel and spinning it very fast. This experiment was final proof that white light is made up of all the colours of the visible spectrum. Red, orange, yellow, green, blue and violet… as well as every shade in between.
Materials Required
coloured pencils x7
Yarn (90cm)
Toothpick x1
Paper x1
Cardboard x1
Glue x1
CD x1
Paper x1
Scissors x1
Ruler x1
How-To Steps (With Videos)
Here are the simple step-by-step instructions (with videos) to create Newton’s disc experiment. Have a look!
Step 1: Collect all the materials you’ll need for the project.
Step 2: Glue a white piece of paper on your cardboard using your glue stick.
Step 3: Outline your CD on to the white paper side of the cardboard. Use your scissors to cut the outline.
Step 4: Using a ruler, divide your disc into 6 sections and colour each section a different colour using your coloured pencils.
Step 5: Poke the center of your coloured disc with a toothpick and stick your piece of string or yarn through the hole.
Step 6: You did it! Wind up your yarn up and pull at the ends of the string to spin the disc. Observe how the colours change!
Share with the Twinner Community!
Share your creative talents with our Twinner community on the Twin App!
You can do this in two easy steps!
Download the Twin App and create your account
Search for the challenge by its name in the app (i.e. “Newton Disc”) and upload a video of your creation today!
Read more about light and colour here on our site or download the Twin App and complete the Where did the Colours Go? adventure!Watch the trailer here:
Go a step further and make a motorized Newton Disc with the Robotic Art Kit!
With our award-winning Robotic Art Kit you can make a motorized Newton Disc and more!
Twin App is an educational app that kids can play educational games on. Inside we have Trivia, DIY projects, and Adventures that have many learning games for kids. Both the Twin App and Twin Science Kits teach STEM (Science,Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) & Arts subjects and 21st century skills.
How do we see Colour? Join Twing on a fun adventure to help bring colour back to the island on theTwin App!
Where did the Colours Go? An island has lost its colour and is completely black and white. Twing needs your help bringing colour back through the power of learning and science! Go on a fun learning adventure with Twing and discover the secret behind light and colour by playing fun games and watching interactive videos.
Here’s a Preview of What You’ll Learn!
What is Colour?
The grass is green, the sky is blue and rainbows are, well, colourful, right? But what exactly are colours? Where do they come from? And how do we see them? Well, those very questions were asked a long time ago by a very famous scientist called Sir Isaac Newton, too.
Let’s answer these questions together! But first, some fundamentals:
How Do We See Colour?
You can’t see colour without light. But how does light reach us? When light leaves its source (for example the Sun), it moves towards us in straight lines called rays! You’ve heard of the term “ray of sunshine” before, haven’t you? Well, that’s where that phrase comes from.
When light hits an object, it is reflected off in different colours. We see things only when the light that is reflected off of them reaches our eyes. That’s why when it is very dark we can’t see anything. With this logic, we know that a tomato is red because it absorbs all colours except red. Same goes for a banana – it is yellow because it reflects the colour yellow.
Our Eyes and Light
So, how does our eyes help us see? Light enters our eyes and is turned into information for our brain to process. That information is sent to our brain where it can make sense of the image!
White Light and the Rainbow
Unlike popular belief that sunlight is yellow, it’s actually white! And in fact, white light is made up of all visible colours combined. Sir Isaac Newton famously discovered this when he conducted his famous experiment to refract light and see the colour spectrum! By sending light through a prism, light was bent, or refracted, by the prism and each wavelength of light is refracted by a slightly different amount. Because each colour is refracted differently, each bends at a different angle, resulting in the separation of white light into the colours of the spectrum, much like a rainbow!
Fun Fact!
You know, Newton wasn’t in school when he discovered the mysteries about colours and light. In fact, he was at home quarantining because of the Plague in England in 1665! He was in his house when he conducted the experiment where he discovered that white light traveling from the sun was actually composed of 7 colours! These colours were red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet, also known as ROY G BIV to help you remember.
Another fun fact!
Did you know that water droplets in the atmosphere bend light? Exactly like Newton’s prism, water droplets in the atmosphere bend light and that’s why see rainbows!
You’ve learned a ton about light and colours! Learn more in the Twin App and help Twing bring back colour to the islander’s lives in our adventure titled “Where Did the Colours Go?.” Also, be sure to complete the activity “How to Make a Newton Disc” in the adventure or here on our website!
Twin App is an educational app that kids can play educational games on. Inside we have Trivia, DIY projects, and Adventures that have many learning games for kids. Both the Twin App and Twin Science Kits teach STEM (Science,Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) & Arts subjects and 21st century skills.
You may have heard of STEM education before, right? Well, if you haven’t heard, STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. Though not mentioned in the acronym, the Arts play an important role in a well-rounded STEM education.
Adding the ‘A’ to STEM
The addition of the Arts to STEM is about applying creative thinking and applied arts to our lives. Art can often times help students discover inventive ways of problem solving, applying principles or presenting information. The addition of the ‘A’ (The Arts) to the original STEM discipline is important in part because skills such as data modeling, developing visual explanations and engaging in critique and evaluation, are increasingly needed in the context of math and science education. Incorporating creative thinking and applied arts to various fields can have the positive impact of revealing ingenious ways of problem solving, integrating principles or presenting information.
Why STEM?
Many education experts regard STEM as an essential component of 21st century education. Why? In a nutshell: The key component of this teaching method is integration and its interdisciplinary nature. Instead of teaching each discipline in independent subject silos, lessons are well rounded, project and inquiry based, with a focus on interdisciplinary learning. Additionally, STEM embraces the 4 key components identified as key in 21st century education: Creativity, Collaboration, Critical Thinking, and Communication. In this way, a STEM education more closely aligns with how we work and operate in the real world, making it a great launching pad for students to succeed after they’ve finished their schooling.
Twin’s award-winning STEM Kits teaches kids critical skills through play!
The Robotic Art Kit is an award winning LEGO®-compatible creative maker kit that combines technology with art.
Why is STEM Education Important?
Reports from various research institutions, international organizations such as the United Nations and World Bank, as well as numerous countries’ labor departments, project that automation will increasingly have an effect on the job market, requiring the workforce to be equipped with the right skills to adapt to new, emerging fields related to new technology. These reports also project an increase in STEM-related occupations. While the world economy and job market have continued to rapidly evolve over the past several decades, many education systems have not. For the most part, students continue to learn the same subject areas in the same classroom setting. Or, a one-size-fits all model.
The goal of STEM-based learning is to help students develop the skills they need to be successful in the future. Regardless of the specific role or industry, it is now critical that students go off to college and/or enter the workforce with a set of well-rounded skills that allow them to adapt to an evolving and fast-paced environment.
Start your child’s STEM education on the right foot with Twin App
Twin App is a fun educational app that takes your child on learning adventures. They can have fun and play while developing their 21st century and STEM skills along the way!
Twin App is an educational app that kids can play educational games on. Inside we have Trivia, DIY projects, and Adventures that have many learning games for kids. Both the Twin App and Twin Science Kits teach STEM (Science,Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) & Arts subjects and 21st century skills.
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