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During this hands-on activity, learners are briefly exposed to moviemaking and animation, when they create their own thaumatropes.

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

In this optics activity, learners build an animation tool to make mini movies. When you spin a phenakistascope, the pictures move so quickly that your eyes and brain can't separate the images.

In this hands-on activity, children create their own kites that can fly indoors. Learners are exposed to basic concepts of gravity and air resistance.

In this activity, learners build a kite out of paper, change it, and try to make it fly even better. With their new knowledge of kite making, students can then go on to create their own kite designs.

In this activity, learners make some music by constructing a kazoo out of a simple plastic drinking straw. Use this activity to explore sound, vibrations, and music.

In this activity, learners play a trick on their own brain to see if the brain can learn to ignore distracting input. Colors and words are used to play the visual trick, known as a Stroop Test.

In this simple and fun activity, learners build a tower of cups to explore distribution of weight. Learners make predictions about their towers and test their designs.

In this activity, learners construct drums out of everyday containers (like bowls or food containers) and shrink wrap. Learners use a hair dryer to affix and tighten the shrink wrap to the container.

During this activity, learners take part in a variety of tasks which involve moving and balancing different body parts.

In this activity, learners build a racecar using only a rubber band, spool, straw, and paper clip! This racer is a classic toy that zips across a flat surface.

In this engineering activity (page 2 of PDF), young learners investigate how a wide base can make a building more stable. Learners use blocks or boxes of different sizes to construct stable towers.

In this engineering activity (page 3 of PDF), young learners investigate how a pole can be made stable by “planting” its base in the ground or adding supports to the base.