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

This is a quick activity (on page 2 of the PDF under Butterfly Wings Activity) that illustrates how nanoscale structures, so small they're practically invisible, can produce visible/colorful effects.

In this activity, learners use simple materials to create giant bubbles.

In this activity, learners explore liquid crystals, light and temperature. Using a postcard made of temperature-sensitive liquid crystal material, learners monitor temperature changes.

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 use a compact disc to make a spectrometer, an instrument used to measure properties of light.

This activity (on pages 24-29) combines science and art to introduce learners to how different animal pollinators spread pollen from one plant to another, and how certain shapes, colors, and smells of

In this activity about afterimages, learners explore what happens when receptor cells called cones in your eye's retina get tired.

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

In this activity, learners discover that it's difficult to distinguish between two different shades of gray when they aren't separated by a boundary.

In this activity, learners explore how light and dark colored objects absorb the Sun's radiations at different rates.

In this hands-on activity, learners build their own kaleidoscopes and explore how light can reflect of off surfaces such as mirrors, to produce beautiful patterns.

In this activity, learners make a Benham Top to explore visual illusions and optics.

In this optics activity, learners explore why the sky is blue and the sunset is red, using a simple setup comprising a transparent plastic box, water, and powdered milk.

In this lab (Activity #1 on page), learners explore how we see color.

Learners use chromatography to separate and analyze the mixture of pigments in leaves. Use this activity to discuss photosynthesis as well as why leaves change color in autumn.

This simple hands-on activity demonstrates why the sky appears blue on a sunny day and red during sunrise and sunset.

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 optics activity, learners discover that when they rotate a special black and white pattern called a Benham's Disk, it produces the illusion of colored rings.