GOAL:

• To develop an awareness of colour in our daily lives, and to appreciate how it influences us.
• To take this awareness, and apply it to the Space Station 2020.

OVERVIEW:

Colour affects our daily lives more than we might think. Manufacturers exploit our colour sense to make our food more attractive, or to enhance their publicity. Fashion and cosmetics rely on our appreciation of colour. We inherit our colour sense from our tree-dwelling ancestors who used it, amongst other things, to pick ripe fruit. The scientists in the Space Station will be away from home in an artificial environment. Colour could become very important to them. This module asks you to think about the importance of colour.

INVESTIGATIONS:

Meaning and Messages - Animals and Colour

Not all animals see in colour.

The students should find out which animals find colour important, and what it is used for. Ask them to look at the animal itself- a panda is black and white, but a macaw is brightly coloured. Then again, a penguin is black and white, but it doesn't live in the tropics.

Other considerations:

• Which animals actively communicate mainly by colour
• What messages they are sending.
• Can the same colour send two different messages?
• What is the limitation of communicating using colour?
• Why are some of the most dangerous animals brightly coloured?

Food for Thought - Food Packaging

Look at food packaging. Questions to consider:

• Are the colours brighter than the real food?
• If so, why is this?
• What is the manufacturer trying to do?
• Is it fair?
• What foods are brightly coloured and why?
• Would you make the food on the Space Station brightly coloured?

Putting Colour to Work

The students should undertake a study of colour in their local environment, at school, in the street, in the town and in the countryside.

You may consider such questions as:

• Fire engines or fire tenders are nearly always red. Is this the best colour for an emergency vehicle?
• What sort of colour do you think is the best for a workplace: warm, cool or neutral?
• Why are computer exteriors so dull to look at?
• Why are most hi-fi systems black and silver?

Look at the way different coloured light changes a colour, by having different coloured light bulbs. Is there a light to work by which makes everything more relaxing?

For a whole day, wear spectacles with coloured lenses [red, green, blue, yellow]. Have they affected your mood at all?

Task:

Choose a colour scheme for the entire interior of the Space Station.

Considerations:

• Should all modules be the same?
• Is it possible to use colour coding to indicate location in the Station?
• Are some colours more suited to one environment than another, eg habiatat and work modules?
• Heating effects of solar radiation

Students should explain their reasoning and choices.

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