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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.

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

Touch the Spring (Lightbulb)
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In this activity, a lightbulb is placed in front of a concave mirror. The actual lightbulb is not visible to the viewer, but the viewer can see the mirror image of the lightbulb formed in space.

Our Sense of Sight: Color Vision
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In this activity, learners investigate color vision as well as plan and conduct their own experiments.

Spherical Reflections
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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.

Water Sphere Lens
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In this activity about light and refraction, learners make a lens and magnifying glass by filling a bowl with water.

Seeing Your Retina
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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.

Parabolas: It's All Done with Mirrors
Source Institutions
In this activity about light and reflection, learners use a special device called a Mirage Maker™ to create an illusion.

Our Sense of Sight: How We Perceive Movement, Depth and Illusions
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In this activity, learners investigate visual perception as well as plan and conduct their own experiments.

Moiré Patterns
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In this activity about light and perception, learners create and observe moire patterns.

Color Vision
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In this online activity, learners make a whole rainbow by mixing red, green, and blue light. They can change the wavelength of a monochromatic beam or they can filter white light.
Multiple Reflections
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In this activity, learners explore how mirrors reflect light and change the way we see things.

Underwater Hide and Seek
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In this activity, learners experience firsthand how marine animals' adaptive coloration camouflages them from prey.

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

Camera Projector
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In this activity (posted on March 14, 2011), learners follow the steps to construct a camera projector to explore lenses and refraction.

Upside-Down Town
Source Institutions
In this activity, learners explore ray optics. Learners discover that they can use a magnifying glass to create an upside-down image.

Cardboard Opaque Projector
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In this activity, learners construct a projector out of cardboard to view their favorite images (such as storybook illustrations) on the wall.
Gelatin Optic Fibers
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In this activity, learners make optical fibers out of strips of gelatin.

Cardboard Box Camera Obscura
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In this activity, learners construct a device that projects images onto a surface, so they can trace landscapes and other sights.

Colored Shadows
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In this optics activity, learners discover that not all shadows are black. Learners explore human color perception by using colored lights to make additive color mixtures.