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Showing results 1 to 16 of 16
CD Spinner
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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.
Physics in a Glass: Reversing Arrows
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In this simple activity, learners investigate refraction by placing a picture of an arrow behind a glass of water.
Hole in Your Hand
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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.
The Bent Pencil
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In this optics activity, learners explore how light bends and affects what we see.
Vanishing Rods
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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.
Parabolas: It's All Done with Mirrors
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In this activity about light and reflection, learners use a special device called a Mirage Maker™ to create an illusion.
Moving Pictures
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In this optics activity, learners create flip books by drawing an image like an eye opening and closing on 24 small pages of paper.
Penny Cup Game
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In this optics activity, learners conduct an experiment to find out why two eyes are better than one!
Disappearing Glass Rods
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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
Color Contrast
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Do you have a hard time matching paint swatches with your furniture? When you consider human perception, color is context dependent.
Magic Disc
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In this activity, learners create an optical illusion by spinning two attached cups. A round ball seems to magically appear when the cups spin.
Sliding Gray Step
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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.
Benham's Disk
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In this activity, learners make a Benham Top to explore visual illusions and optics.
Shrinking Spot
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In this activity, learners control the (apparent) size of a hole with their brain.
Arrows
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In this activity, learners surprise their eyes with an optical illusion involving arrows made out of pipe cleaners.
Tiny Pants Photo Challenge
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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.