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Exploring Materials: Nano Gold
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In this activity, learners discover that nanoparticles of gold can appear red, orange or even blue. They learn that a material can act differently when it’s nanometer-sized.
Seeing 3D
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Create 3D glasses and use them to explore color, light and optics. Fool your brain into 'seeing' three dimensions on a flat surface!
CD Spinner
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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.
Amazing Albedo
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In this experiment, learners work in teams to investigate how the color of a surface influences its ability to reflect light and therefore heat.
Rotating Light
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In this activity, learners explore what happens when polarized white light passes through a sugar solution.
Our Sense of Sight: Color Vision
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In this activity, learners investigate color vision as well as plan and conduct their own experiments.
Making a One-Second Timer
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This lab activity has learners create a pendulum with a one-second period.
Matraca
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In this activity, learners create a traditional Mexican noisemaker (a matraca) using cardboard, craft sticks, and a wooden dowel.
Exploring Tools: Special Microscopes
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In this activity, learners use a flexible magnet as a model for a scanning probe microscope (SPM). They learn that SPMs are an example of a special tool that scientists use to work on the nanoscale.
Luminol Test
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Learners mix a solution containing luminol and copper with a fake blood solution. A chemical reaction between the luminol solution and fake blood (hydrogen peroxide) show learners a blue glow.
Laser Lissajous: PVC Version
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In this activity, learners use a laser pointer and two small rotating mirrors to create a variety of fascinating patterns, which can be easily and dramatically projected on a wall or screen.
Inverse Functions: Pennies, Pressure, Temperature, and Light
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The major goal of this math lesson is to have learners collect data from a variety of experiments, determine what models best fits their data, and explain why their models are best.
Solar Structures
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In this activity, learners explore how the power of the sun can be harnessed to heat and cool a building.
Delta, Delta, Delta
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In this experiment, learners construct an equilateral triangle using graph paper, a pencil, protractor and ruler. They also make a "laser triangle" using a laser pointer and front-silvered mirrors.
CD Spectroscope
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In this activity, learners use an old CD to construct a spectroscope, a device that separates light into its component colors.
Engineered Music
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In this activity, learners explore how musical instruments are engineered.
Morphing Butterfly
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In this activity, learners explore how nanosized structures can create brilliant color.
Earth's Energy Cycle: Albedo
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In this activity, learners experiment and observe how the color of materials that cover the Earth affects the amounts of sunlight our planet absorbs.
The Electric Squeeze
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In this activity/demo about piezoelectricity, learners discover how some crystals produce electricity when squeezed.
An Ice Lens
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In this optics activity, learners discover basic lens-making techniques by using a tennis ball to make a lens out of ice.