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

In this optics activity, learners explore how many objects they can see in a set of mirrors (hinged like a book) at various angles.

In this activity, learners use an old CD to construct a spectroscope, a device that separates light into its component colors.

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

In this activity, learners explore how nanosized structures can create brilliant color.

In this activity, learners create a cylindrical mirror to see themselves as others see them.

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

In this optics activity, learners create a ripple tank from household materials to study waves. Learners build the tank and then explore by making various types of waves.

In this optics activity, learners experiment with polarizers (small dark rectangles) to examine light intensity.

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

In this optics activity, learners explore color by examining color dots through colored water and the light of a flashlight.

This is a quick activity (on page 2 of the PDF under Stained Glass Activity) about the "Tyndall effect," the scattering of visible light when it hits very small dispersed particles.

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

In this activity (1st on the page), learners find their blind spot--the area on the retina without receptors that respond to light.

In this activity, learners build inexpensive kaleidoscopes using transparency paper and foil (instead of mirrors).

By making models of light waves with paper, learners can understand why different colors appear in bubbles.

In this optics activity, demonstrate diffraction using a candle or a small bright flashlight bulb and a slide made with two pencils.

In this activity, learners examine how colored lenses act like filters and absorb all colors of light except for the color of the lenses.