Search Results

Light painting is a creative activity that involves creating striking images and illusions using a camera, a light source, and a little practice.

Did you know that using a lens one can bend light to make pictures of the world? It's true!

With little more than a flashlight, a straw, and a plastic lid, make an observatory so you can see the amazing colors in bubbles.

By making models of light waves with paper, learners can understand why different colors appear in bubbles.

This resource contains several mini-explorations using a slide projector as a light source to investigate light and the properties of images.

In this activity, learners trap a thin layer of air between two pieces of Plexiglas to produce rainbow-colored interference patterns.

In this trick, hold your hand over a burning candle without getting burned, by reflecting and transmitting the light of two candles. This activity is best suited as a demonstration.

Learners explore three-dimensional geometric frames including cubes and tetrahedrons, as they create bubble wands with pipe cleaners and drinking straws.

This activity provides instructions for building a mirrored tube--a smaller and simpler version of a submarine's periscope--that lets you see around corners and over walls.

In this hands-on botany activity, learners sprout vegetables in film canisters.

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.

If you had a long tube with a 5 millimeter wide slit, would you see the entire Golden Gate Bridge?

Construct a simple battery that's able to power a small light or motor out of foil, salt water, and charcoal. A helpful video, produced by the Exploratorium, guides you along on this activity.

An ordinary camera has a lens that makes an image on film. In a pinhole camera, a small hole replaces the lens.

Discover how a refracting telescope works by making one from scratch using common items. This telescope won't have a tube so the learner can see how an image is formed inside the telescope.

This is an activity to do when there is a solar eclipse!