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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.
Water Illusions: Refraction & Magnification
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Learners demonstrate how water can distort, refract and magnify light.
Bubble Tray
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In this activity, learners use simple materials to create giant bubbles.
Cylindrical Mirror
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In this activity, learners create a cylindrical mirror to see themselves as others see them.
Iridescent Art
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This is a quick activity (on page 2 of the PDF under Butterfly Wings Activity) that illustrates how nanoscale structures, so small they're practically invisible, can produce visible/colorful effects.
Water Sphere Lens
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In this activity about light and refraction, learners make a lens and magnifying glass by filling a bowl with water.
Seeing Your Retina
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In this quick optics activity, learners use a dim point of light (a disassembled Mini MagLite and dowel set-up) to cast a shadow of the blood supply in their retina onto the retina itself.
Glue Stick Sunset
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In this activity, learners explore why the sky is blue. Learners model the scattering of light by the atmosphere, which creates the blue sky and red sunset, using a flashlight and clear glue sticks.
Kaleidoscope
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In this activity, learners build inexpensive kaleidoscopes using transparency paper and foil (instead of mirrors).
What does Color have to do with Cooling?
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In this demonstration/experiment, learners discover that different colors and materials (metals, fabrics, paints) radiate different amounts of energy and therefore, cool at different rates.
Opti-Top
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In this activity, learners will create an optical illusion top. Learners will explore color mixing, physics and design through this activity.
How Our Environment Affects Color Vision
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In this lab (Activity #1 on page), learners explore how we see color.
Diffraction Between Wax Blocks
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In this optics activity, learners explore diffraction by adding wax blocks to a ripple tank. The wedge-shaped blocks act as obstacles that the wave must bend around.
Mirror, Mirror
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In this activity, learners test the Law of Reflection based on experimental evidence. Learners produce raw data and explanations based on their data: pencil tracings of incident and reflection rays.
Hot Air
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In this activity, learners set up an experiment to investigate the effects of hot air on the path of a laser beam.
Kaleid-o-mania
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In this hands-on activity, learners build their own kaleidoscopes and explore how light can reflect of off surfaces such as mirrors, to produce beautiful patterns.
Three Colors of Light
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Have fun with additive mixing! Observe what happens when the three primary colors of light--red, green and blue--are mixed together, resulting in white light.
Personal Pinhole Theater
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Have you ever heard of a camera without a lens? In this activity, learners create a pinhole camera out of simple materials. They'll see the world in a whole new way: upside down and backwards!