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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.

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.

In this activity, learners build inexpensive kaleidoscopes using transparency paper and foil (instead of mirrors).

In this activity about afterimages, learners explore what happens when receptor cells called cones in your eye's retina get tired.

In this activity, learners play with a fuzzy-colored dot that has no distinct edges seems to disappear. As learners stare at the dot, its color appears to blend with the colors surrounding it.

In this activity, learners construct an indoors obstacle course and discover how using an eye patch can help them complete the course in the dark.

In this activity, learners will create an optical illusion top. Learners will explore color mixing, physics and design through this activity.

In this lab (Activity #1 on page), learners explore how we see color.

In this activity, learners discover that it's difficult to distinguish between two different shades of gray when they aren't separated by a boundary.

Design and create an optical illusion toy that makes two pictures appear to become one. This is called a thaumatrope and will allow the learner to investigate the phenomenon of persistence of vision.

In this activity, learners construct three optical illusion toys to examine how our brains play tricks on what we see.

How can you make one shade of gray look like two? By putting it against two different color backgrounds! This activity allows learners to perform this sleight of hand very easily.

In this activity, learners make a Benham Top to explore visual illusions and optics.

In this activity (17th on the page), learners investigate why you cannot see colors in dim light.

In this activity, learners make an optical illusion toy from the 1800s to explore persistence of vision.

In this optics activity, learners discover that when they rotate a special black and white pattern called a Benham's Disk, it produces the illusion of colored rings.