⚙️ Group B
Phase 3 — Investigation
🖥️ Interactive
⏱ 15 minutes
Task 5 — The Engineer
Investigate RGB pixels, screen resolution and how digital displays trick the brain into seeing millions of colours from just three light sources. Use AI to research, then fact-check one claim.
Step 1 — Read before you start
Group B — How Screens Produce Colour
Read or listen to this before the interactive tools unlock
Digital screens do not contain every colour separately. Instead, most screens are made of tiny pixels, and each pixel contains small red, green, and blue light elements.
By changing how bright each of these three lights is, the screen can create many different colours. Your eye and brain blend these tiny lights into one full image — you never see the individual red, green and blue dots unless you zoom in very close.
When all three lights are at full brightness, the result looks close to white. When all three are off, the result is black. Different combinations of brightness create every colour in between.
By changing how bright each of these three lights is, the screen can create many different colours. Your eye and brain blend these tiny lights into one full image — you never see the individual red, green and blue dots unless you zoom in very close.
When all three lights are at full brightness, the result looks close to white. When all three are off, the result is black. Different combinations of brightness create every colour in between.
💡 RGB mixing combinations to know: Red + Green → Yellow | Red + Blue → Magenta | Green + Blue → Cyan | Red + Green + Blue → White | None → Black
pixel
RGB
resolution
emitted light
Before you explore — look at this pixel first
The pixel below shows R:255 G:128 B:0 — a bright orange. Each number is the brightness of that colour light on a scale from 0 (off) to 255 (maximum). When your eye sees this pixel from normal distance, it does not see three separate lights — it blends them into one orange. Zoom into the pixel tool below to see this for yourself.
Step 2 — RGB Colour Mixer
🎨 Mix your own colour from Red, Green & Blue light
Drag the sliders — watch how mixing light works differently from mixing paint
Presets
This is pure red light — only the red elements in each pixel are on. On a normal screen you would see a solid red. On a real screen, the green and blue sub-pixels are completely off.
#FF0000
rgb(255, 0, 0)
Pure Red
Step 3 — Pixel Zoom Tool
🔍 Zoom into an image to reveal its pixel grid
Every image you have ever seen on any screen is built from this same RGB grid. Hover at 64× to see individual pixel values.
📝 Record your observation — what do you notice as you zoom in?
✅ Saved to portfolio
Step 4 — AI Research & Fact Check
🤖 Wonder Learning AI — Group B
Generate an AI explanation, highlight one sentence, then fact-check it against a trusted source
Pre-loaded prompt (editable)
"How does an RGB screen trick your brain into seeing millions of colours from only 3 colours of light?"
🔍 Fact-check this statement
Select a sentence above to fact-check it.
Verify against a trusted source:
🔧 HowStuffWorks — Pixels
🎓 Khan Academy — Digital Images
🔬 New Scientist — Screen Tech
My verdict:
✅ Fact-check saved to your portfolio!
Bridge to Phase 4
"You have now seen, at a pixel level, how every screen you have ever used builds its images. When you present in Task 9, show your pixel zoom observation and explain the one AI claim you verified."
What happens in Task 5
Group B investigates how digital screens produce colour using the RGB model. After reading the intro and tapping "Mark as understood", students use an interactive RGB mixer with 3 sliders (0–255) and preset buttons, a pixel zoom canvas tool (1× to 64×) with hover RGB readout, and an AI research panel with sentence-level fact-checking. A mid-investigation quiz auto-triggers at 10 minutes for all groups simultaneously.
📋 Learning objectives
- Understand the RGB colour model and how digital screens produce images
- Connect the biology of colour vision (3 cone types) to screen engineering (3 light colours)
- Use AI tools critically — generating content and verifying one claim against a trusted source
🔑 Key terms
pixel
RGB
resolution
emitted light
sub-pixel
additive colour mixing
♿ SEN Adaptations
- Pixel grid available in enlarged format — fewer, larger pixels for easier viewing
- RGB slider labels include colour swatches alongside text, not just text labels
- All workspace text has read-aloud button (speaker icon)
- Simplified AI response mode toggle — "Simpler please" button below response
- Output builder assessment is on process engagement, not volume or length
🖨️ No-Tech Format
- Printed pixel grid template — students colour squares by hand using coloured pencils
- Printed colour mixing chart showing RGB combinations
- Two printed source article excerpts (HowStuffWorks + Khan Academy)
- Teacher demonstrates zooming on a class projector
🔬 Extension (ages 13–15)
- Build a pixel art image using only RGB values — no drawing tools, just a spreadsheet grid
- Research OLED vs LCD: how do they produce black differently, and why does it matter?
- Explore why mixing light (additive) produces white but mixing paint (subtractive) produces black