Search Results


Showing results 1 to 20 of 22

Source Institutions
Add to list Details
In this activity, learners create a simple “top” from a CD, marble and bottle cap, and use it as a spinning platform for a variety of illusion-generating patterns.

$1 - $5 per student Ages 8 - 18 10 to 30 minutes
Source Institutions
Add to list Details
In this activity, learners use an old CD to construct a spectroscope, a device that separates light into its component colors.

1 cent - $1 per student Ages 8 - 18 10 to 30 minutes
Source Institutions
Add to list Details
In this activity, learners explore how nanosized structures can create brilliant color.

Over $20 per group Ages 6 - adult 10 to 30 minutes
Source Institutions
Add to list Details
In this optics activity, learners examine how a transparent material such as glass or water can actually reflect light better than any mirror.

1 cent - $1 per group Ages 8 - 18 10 to 30 minutes
Source Institutions
Add to list Details
In this activity (1st on the page), learners find their blind spot--the area on the retina without receptors that respond to light.

1 cent - $1 per group Ages 8 - 18 10 to 30 minutes
Source Institutions
Add to list Details
In this activity, learners will make homemade jello that glows under a blacklight. They will learn about quinine, an ingredient in tonic water that is fluorescent.

$5 - $10 per group Ages 8 - adult 10 to 30 minutes
Source Institutions
Add to list Details
By making models of light waves with paper, learners can understand why different colors appear in bubbles.

1 cent - $1 per student Ages 11 - 18 10 to 30 minutes
Source Institutions
Add to list Details
In this optics activity, demonstrate diffraction using a candle or a small bright flashlight bulb and a slide made with two pencils.

$5 - $10 per student Ages 8 - 18 10 to 30 minutes
Source Institutions
Add to list Details
In this activity, learners make their own heat waves in an aquarium.

$5 - $10 per group Ages 8 - 18 10 to 30 minutes
Source Institutions
Add to list Details
In this activity, learners will create their own simple shadow puppets, and experiment with light and shadow while playing with them.

1 cent - $1 per student Ages 6 - adult 10 to 30 minutes
Source Institutions
Add to list Details
In this activity, learners overlap the three primary colors to see how all other colors are made.

free Ages 11 - 18 10 to 30 minutes
Source Institutions
Add to list Details
In this activity, learners use their strength to light a light bulb. A chain made from paper clips is placed in series with a battery and flashlight bulb.

$5 - $10 per group Ages 11 - 18 10 to 30 minutes
Source Institutions
Add to list Details
In this activity, learners explore liquid crystals, light and temperature. Using a postcard made of temperature-sensitive liquid crystal material, learners monitor temperature changes.

$1 - $5 per student Ages 8 - 18 10 to 30 minutes
Source Institutions
Add to list Details
An ordinary camera has a lens that makes an image on film. In a pinhole camera, a small hole replaces the lens.

$1 - $5 per student Ages 6 - 18 10 to 30 minutes
Source Institutions
Add to list Details
In this activity, learners will explore light with reflective surfaces. Learners will make predictions and share their observations as they experiment with directing a beam of light.

$1 - $5 per group Ages 4 - adult 10 to 30 minutes
Source Institutions
Add to list Details
In this fun optics activity, learners explore principles of light, reflection (mirrors), and perception. Learners work in pairs and sit on opposite sides of a "two-way" mirror.

Over $20 per group Ages 6 - 18 10 to 30 minutes
Source Institutions
Add to list Details
In this math activity related to light, learners explore why a light, such as a candle or a streetlight, looks dimmer the farther away from it we get.

$5 - $10 per student Ages 11 - 18 10 to 30 minutes
Source Institutions
Add to list Details
In this activity, learners make their own pinhole viewer in order to measure the size of the sun.

$1 - $5 per group Ages 8 - adult 10 to 30 minutes
Source Institutions
Add to list Details
In this activity, learners trap a thin layer of air between two pieces of Plexiglas to produce rainbow-colored interference patterns.

$1 - $5 per student Ages 8 - 18 10 to 30 minutes
Source Institutions
Add to list Details
In this math activity related to light, learners assemble a photometer and use it to estimate the power output of the Sun.

1 cent - $1 per student Ages 14 - 18 10 to 30 minutes