The Spectroscopy Society of Pittsburgh (SSP) will again offer its annual “Light, Color and Spectroscopy for Kids” workshop to elementary and middle school teachers. Using the materials provided by the SSP, workshop participants will be able to project a large and very bright visible spectrum (rainbow?) in their own classrooms. They will use that spectrum together with other materials to demonstrate color addition & subtraction and why colors appear the way they do.

Spectral excitation will introduce the concept of atomic energy levels in a novel way. Later in the workshop, participants will view the beautiful colors and spectra of excited gases and use their observations to perform an experiment in qualitative chemical analysis. To make science a little more interesting to students that profess little or no interest in science, workshop participants will be introduced to a new concept – “spectroscopy as an art form”.

The teaching method used is that of the student-assistant lecture-demonstration approach with emphasis on deductive reasoning. Workshop activities correlate well with the Pennsylvania Science Standards. Teachers will take home most of the materials used at the workshop for use in their own classrooms, including a SpectroClick Kit which can be used at all grade levels, K–12.