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KinPilot How Things Work™/Connected ideas

Grades 3–5

How can words and pictures make an idea clear?

Words and pictures can describe the same idea in different ways. A digital picture uses a grid of tiny squares called pixels. Together, their colors form a larger image. A picture leaves out many details, so its important shapes need to stay clear.

Sixteen values reconstruct a pixel imageThe key assigns zero to white and one to blue. Four rows 0110, 1111, 1111 and 0110 each point to their corresponding four pixels. Below, the same sixteen-pixel shape appears at two sizes; only display size changes.Numbers become a picture0 = white1 = blue0110111111110110Four rows of four pixelsSame data, larger display16 pixels16 pixelsBigger squares do not addnew recorded detail.
A grid of colored pixels represents a larger picture. The image is a representation of an idea, not the object itself.

Overlap helps show which shape is in front. A circle that hides part of a square appears closer to the viewer. A sentence can explain that relationship. “The blue circle overlaps the orange square” names both shapes clearly. A sentence using only “it” may leave the reader unsure which shape is meant.

The source of a picture matters too. A drawing made today from an old record is a later illustration. It can show the record’s information clearly, but it does not become the original record.

A useful explanation makes the picture readable, uses words with a clear meaning and says where its information came from. Making a drawing attractive does not by itself make every claim beside it true.

Where these ideas lead

Illustrations simplify the real processes; any invented quantities or records are identified in the text.

Sources

  • CS Unplugged, University of Canterbury — Color by numbers
  • NASA Earth Observatory — Remote Sensing
  • NASA Earthdata / Esri documentation — Resample function
  • J. Paul Getty Museum Education — From Foreground to Background
  • Common Core State Standards Initiative — Language, Grade 3
  • Library of Congress — Getting Started with Primary Sources
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