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Physics in a Glass: Reversing Arrows
Source Institutions
In this simple activity, learners investigate refraction by placing a picture of an arrow behind a glass of water.
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CD Spectroscope
Source Institutions
In this activity, learners use an old CD to construct a spectroscope, a device that separates light into its component colors.
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Reflecting Rainbows: Decorate Your White Walls With Rainbow Colors!
Source Institutions
Like water drops in falling rain, a CD separates white light into all the colors that make it up.
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Water Illusions: Refraction & Magnification
Source Institutions
Learners demonstrate how water can distort, refract and magnify light.
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Make a Prism
Source Institutions
In this activity, learners will make their own prism and use a glass of water to separate sunlight into different colors.
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Water Sphere Lens
Source Institutions
In this activity about light and refraction, learners make a lens and magnifying glass by filling a bowl with water.
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Introduction to the New Chain Gang
Source Institutions
In this activity, learners use pop-beads to understand the characteristics and properties of polymer chains.
The Bent Pencil
Source Institutions
In this optics activity, learners explore how light bends and affects what we see.
![](/sites/default/files/styles/square_100/public/resource_images/smile-000-000-001-866.gif?itok=szQ30o8Q)
Light Quest
Source Institutions
Learners test their "light-smarts" by playing a game called "Light Quest!" The game board represents an atom and each player represents an electron that has been bumped into the atom's outer unstable
![](/sites/default/files/styles/square_100/public/resource_images/smile-000-000-004-498.jpg?itok=XfwT9bP_)
Critical Angle
Source Institutions
In this optics activity, learners examine how a transparent material such as glass or water can actually reflect light better than any mirror.
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Vanishing Rods
Source Institutions
This is a quick activity/demonstration that introduces learners to the concept of index of refraction. Learners place stirring rods in a jar of water and notice they can see them clearly.
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Make a Light Fountain
Source Institutions
In this optics activity, learners make a "light fountain" from a clear plastic bottle, flashlight, and other simple materials.
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Lose a Glass in a Glass
Source Institutions
In this optics activity, learners use paint thinner to make a small jar seem to disappear inside a larger jar.
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Super Gelatin
Source Institutions
Can gelatin (like Jell-O ®) change the speed of light?
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Eye Spy
Source Institutions
This fun activity uses simple materials such as milk cartons and mirrors to introduce the ideas of optics and visual perception.
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See the Light
Source Institutions
In this three-part activity, learners conduct simple experiments to see how light refracts and reflects, and how colors of light affect what we see.
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Camera Projector
Source Institutions
In this activity (posted on March 14, 2011), learners follow the steps to construct a camera projector to explore lenses and refraction.
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Convection Current
Source Institutions
In this activity, learners make their own heat waves in an aquarium.
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Glass and Mirrors: An Inside Look at Telescopes
Source Institutions
This hands-on astronomy activity allows you to create a “cutaway” telescope to clearly show how reflector and refractor telescopes work.
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Disappearing Glass Rods
Source Institutions
In this optics activity, learners discover how they can make glass objects "disappear." Learners submerge glass objects like stirring rods into a beaker of Wesson™ oil to explore how the principles of