How Does a Color Sensor Work?

Students learn more about how color sensors work, reinforcing their similarities to the human sense of sight. They look at the light sensing process—incoming light converted to electrical signals sent to the brain—through the human eye anatomy as well as human-made electrical color sensors. A mini-activity, which uses LEGO® MINDSTORMS® EV3 intelligent bricks and color sensors gives students a chance to investigate how color sensors function in preparation for the associated activity involving the color sensors and taskbots. A PowerPoint® presentation explains stimulus-to-response pathways, sensor fundamentals, and details about the LEGO color sensor, including its two modes of gathering data and what its numerical value readings mean. Students take pre/post quizzes and watch a short online video. This lesson and its associated activity enable students to gain a deeper understanding of how robots can take sensor input and use it to make decisions via programming.