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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 simple activity, learners investigate refraction by placing a picture of an arrow behind a glass of water.

Create an illusion where it appears that your hand has a hole in it. You'll see the results from when one eye gets conflicting information.

In this optics activity, learners explore how light bends and affects what we see.

In this activity, learners construct a three-dimensional ambiguous cube to explore visual illusions and how our brains interpret or misinterpret information.

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.

Up close, an array of dots could look random, but take a step back, and an image forms. By tracing over an image, learners can create their own dot based image.

In this activity about light and reflection, learners use a special device called a Mirage Maker™ to create an illusion.

In this optics activity, learners create flip books by drawing an image like an eye opening and closing on 24 small pages of paper.

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

Do you have a hard time matching paint swatches with your furniture? When you consider human perception, color is context dependent.

In this activity (13th on the page), learners complete a simple illusion trick to see through their own hand.

Known as the waterfall effect, this activity demonstrates adaptation in our visual system.

We don't normally view people upside down and so our brains aren't accustomed to it.

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, learners control the (apparent) size of a hole with their brain.

In this activity, learners use a simple trick of perspective to dress friends in tiny cutout clothing. Learners make tiny pants out of card stock and tape them to the end of a stick.

In this fun and interactive online exhibit, the straight lines of a tile wall appear to curve. The learner moves the rows of tiles and changes the color of the grout to achieve the intriguing effect.