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Before there were clocks, people used shadows to tell time. In this outdoor activity, learners will discover how to tell time using only a compass, a pencil, a handy printout, and a sunny day.

Did you know that a Slinky makes a handy model of earthquake waves?

In this activity about light and refraction, learners make a lens and magnifying glass by filling a bowl with water.

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.

In this activity, learners construct their own small catapults using simple materials. Learners follow visual instructions to build their launching device.

In this activity related to magnetism and electricity, learners discover that a magnet falls more slowly through a metallic tube than it does through a nonmetallic tube.

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.

Align four color transparencies, each one a single color (cyan, magenta, yellow, and black), and see a beautiful full color image.

In this activity, learners explore why the sky is blue. Learners model the scattering of light by the atmosphere, which creates the blue sky and red sunset, using a flashlight and clear glue sticks.

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

Play keep away from your cat by using a static charge to suspend a piece of tinsel in the air. This Exploratorium produced activity also features videos to help create and learn about this phenomenon.

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.

If you have access to a copper metal tube, this activity does a great job demonstrating what happens to matter when it's heated or cooled. This activity requires some lab equipment.

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 activity, learners explore the invisible infrared radiation from an electric heater.

Are there boxes, is this an illusion, or is this real life Q-bert? Illusions are always fun to build especially when you can build them.

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

Make your own speaker with a magnet, wire, and paper cup! If you have a radio with a headphone plug and an old pair of headphones, this is a great tinkering activity.

In this physics activity, learners recreate Galileo's famous experiment, in which he dropped a heavy weight and a light weight from the top of the Leaning Tower of Pisa to show that both weights fall

Oboes's unique sound originates from the two small reeds a musician blows into. Make your own double reed instrument out of straw!