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Pinhole Viewer
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In this activity, learners discuss and investigate how cameras, telescopes, and their own eyes use light in similar ways.
Make a Prism
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In this activity, learners will make their own prism and use a glass of water to separate sunlight into different colors.
Terrestrial Hi-Lo Hunt
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In this outdoor activity, learners search for the warmest and coolest, windiest and calmest, wettest and driest, and brightest and darkest spots in an area.
Sensory Hi-Lo Hunt
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In this outdoor activity, learners use only their senses to to find the extremes of several environmental variables or physical factors: wind, temperature, light, slope and moisture.
What Causes Rainbows?
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In this activity, learners explore how and why rainbows form by creating rainbows in a variety of ways using simple materials. Learners create rainbows indoors and outdoors.
Polarized Sunglasses
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In this activity, learners explore how polarizing sunglasses can help diminish road glare.
Pringles Pinhole Camera
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An ordinary camera has a lens that makes an image on film. In a pinhole camera, a small hole replaces the lens.
Finding the Size of the Sun and Moon
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In this activity, learners build a simple pinhole viewer. They use this apparatus to project images from a variety of light sources, including a candle, the Sun, and the Moon.
Self-Portrait Silhouettes: Activity 2
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In this activity, learners make a photographic image—without a camera!
How does the Atmosphere keep the Earth Warmer?
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In this activity, learners simulate the energy transfer between the earth and space by using the light from a desk lamp desk lamp with an incandescent bulb and a stack of glass plates.
Bring it into Focus
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In this activity (page 2 of PDF), learners play with a lens and a piece of paper to focus an image on the paper. Learners look at different things, and see how the lenses affect the image.
Oil Spot Photometer
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In this math activity related to light, learners assemble a photometer and use it to estimate the power output of the Sun.
The Old White Sheet Trick: Light and Insect Behavior
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In this outdoor, nighttime activity, learners gather around a brightly lit, white surface and study the behavior of nocturnal animals attracted to the light, particularly night fliers.
Personal Pinhole Theater
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Have you ever heard of a camera without a lens? In this activity, learners create a pinhole camera out of simple materials. They'll see the world in a whole new way: upside down and backwards!
Glowing Tonic
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In this sunny day activity, learners compare how a cup of water and a cup of tonic water reflect or refract light in the sun.
Splitting White Light
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In this optics activity, learners split white light into all its component colors using three household items: a compact disc, dishwashing liquid, and a hose (outside).
Wintergreen
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In this outdoor, winter activity, learners find living green plants under the snow and determine the light and temperature conditions around the plants.
Telescopes as Time Machines
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This fun, nighttime hands-on astronomy activity lets learners explore how long it takes for light from different objects in the universe to reach Earth.
Build Your Own Solar Oven
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Learners follow directions to construct a solar oven that really cooks! The solar oven uses aluminum foil to reflect sunlight into a cooking chamber, which is painted black.
Why Are Bubbles So Colorful?
Source Institutions
In this activity, learners explore why they can see colors in bubbles and why they change.