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Rotating Light
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In this activity, learners explore what happens when polarized white light passes through a sugar solution.

Spherical Reflections
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In this art meets science activity, learners pack silver, ball-shaped ornaments in a single layer in a box to create an array of spherical reflectors.

Water Illusions: Refraction & Magnification
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Learners demonstrate how water can distort, refract and magnify light.

The Liquid Rainbow
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Learners are challenged to discover the relative densities of colored liquids to create a rainbow pattern in a test tube.

Soap-Film Painting
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Make a big canvas of iridescent color with pvc pipe! In this Exploratorium Science Snack, you'll need to cut and assemble some PVC pipe, but the pay-off, the soap-bubble canvas, is big.

Magic Wand
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In this activity about light and perception, learners create pictures in thin air.

Hot Spot
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In this activity, learners explore the invisible infrared radiation from an electric heater.

Look Into Infinity
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Learners use two mirrors to explore how images of images of images can repeat forever.

Critical Angle
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In this optics activity, learners examine how a transparent material such as glass or water can actually reflect light better than any mirror.

Stereoscope
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In this activity, learners construct a device that allows them to view 2-D images in 3-D.

Forensic Science: Hair Sample Investigation
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This activity (on page 2 of the PDF under SciGirls Activity: Forensics) is a full inquiry investigation into how hairs from a crime scene are matched to suspects.

Glow Up
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In this activity, learners explore chemiluminescence and fluorescence. Learners examine 3 different solutions in regular light, in the dark with added bleach solution, and under a black light.

Corner Reflector
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In this optics/mathematics activity, learners use two hinged mirrors to create a kaleidoscope that shows multiple images of an object.

Convection Current
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In this activity, learners make their own heat waves in an aquarium.

Self-Portrait Silhouettes: Activity 2
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In this activity, learners make a photographic image—without a camera!

Do Plants Need Light?
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In this food science activity, learners conduct an experiment that demonstrates the importance of light to plants.

What does Color have to do with Cooling?
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In this demonstration/experiment, learners discover that different colors and materials (metals, fabrics, paints) radiate different amounts of energy and therefore, cool at different rates.

See the Light
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Learners mix a solution of luminol with hydrogen peroxide to produce a reaction that gives off blue light.

Super Sleuths
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In this physical sciences activity, learners use science to solve a "crime." Learners collect trace evidence (glitter) and explore its characteristics, such as color, size, shape, and light reflection

Bone Stress
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In this optics activity, learners examine how polarized light can reveal stress patterns in clear plastic.