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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 engineering design challenge, learners animate a facial expression and make a machine (zoetrope) that plays the animation back.

In this activity, learners explore sound by constructing an instrument toy that buzzes when you swing it.

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 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 activity, learners explore sound by constructing a simple piano out of wood and craft sticks.

In this activity, learners build a figure that moves and "comes to life" when they pull its string.

In this activity, learners build a musical drum using a cardboard tube, plastic wrap, and beads.

In this activity (15th activity on the page) about the sense of touch, learners use glue and cardboard to construct a maze they use with their eyes closed.

Create your own spinning top, and explore color, shapes and spinning. This activity contains instructions for making your spinning top, and tips on how to design and decorate it.

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.

Learners build pan pipes out of drinking straws by cutting them to different lengths. Then, learners make music by blowing across the straws and playing some well-known songs.

In this activity, learners investigate the reflective properties of light and mirrors as they make a kaleidoscope.

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

In this activity, learners build a slide whistle using PVC pipe, bamboo skewer, and piece of foam. Construction of the instrument is relatively simple.

In this activity on page 8 of the PDF, learners make a slimy substance very similar to mucus, and sprinkle it with glitter to imitate the way that allergens are trapped.

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