Search Results

In this simple activity, learners investigate refraction by placing a picture of an arrow behind a glass of water.

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

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

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 explore how light bends and affects what we see.

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

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.

In this optics activity, learners make a "light fountain" from a clear plastic bottle, flashlight, and other simple materials.

In this optics activity, learners use paint thinner to make a small jar seem to disappear inside a larger jar.

Can gelatin (like Jell-O ®) change the speed of light?

In this three-part activity, learners conduct simple experiments to see how light refracts and reflects, and how colors of light affect what we see.

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

In this activity, learners make their own heat waves in an aquarium.

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

In this optics activity, learners explore how they can make gelatin stop light, but not stop them from seeing fruit suspended within.

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.

Learners experiment with water gel crystals, or sodium polyacrylate crystals, which absorb hundreds of times their weight in water. When in pure water, the water gel crystals cannot be seen.

In this sunny day activity, learners compare how a cup of water and a cup of tonic water reflect or refract light in the sun.

In this optics activity, learners use water to make a coin "appear" and "disappear." Use this activity to demonstrate how light refracts and introduce light as waves.