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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 experiment, learners work in teams to investigate how the color of a surface influences its ability to reflect light and therefore heat.

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

Learners demonstrate how water can distort, refract and magnify light.

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

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

In this demonstration/experiment, learners discover that different colors and materials (metals, fabrics, paints) radiate different amounts of energy and therefore, cool at different rates.

In this activity, learners will create an optical illusion top. Learners will explore color mixing, physics and design through this activity.

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

In this optics activity, learners explore diffraction by adding wax blocks to a ripple tank. The wedge-shaped blocks act as obstacles that the wave must bend around.

In this activity, learners test the Law of Reflection based on experimental evidence. Learners produce raw data and explanations based on their data: pencil tracings of incident and reflection rays.

In this activity, learners set up an experiment to investigate the effects of hot air on the path of a laser beam.

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.

Have fun with additive mixing! Observe what happens when the three primary colors of light--red, green and blue--are mixed together, resulting in white light.

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!