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Tiny Tubes
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In this activity, learners make "totally tubular" forms of carbon. Learners use chicken wire to build macro models of carbon nanotubes.
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.
Your Age on Other Worlds
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Did you know that you would be a different age if you lived on Mars? It's true!
Take It From The Top: How Does This Stack Up?
Source Institutions
In this activity, learners explore center of gravity, or balance point, of stacked blocks.
Cylindrical Mirror
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In this activity, learners create a cylindrical mirror to see themselves as others see them.
Make a Sun Clock: Tell Time with the Sun
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Before there were clocks, people used shadows to tell time. In this outdoor activity, learners will discover how to tell time using only a compass, a pencil, a handy printout, and a sunny day.
Illuminations on Rates of Reactions
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In this activity, learners investigate the speed of chemical reactions with light sticks. Learners discover that reactions can be sped up or slowed down due to temperature changes.
Graph Dance
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In this activity, learners "dance" (move back and forth at varying speeds) by reading a graph. This is a kinesthetic way to help learners interpret and understand how motion is graphed.
Lagging Sound
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In this group activity, learners see and hear the speed of sound. A learner designated the "gonger" hits a gong, once every second, as the rest of the group watches and listens from a distance.
Falling Feather
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In this physics activity, learners recreate Galileo's famous experiment, in which he dropped a heavy weight and a light weight from the top of the Leaning Tower of Pisa to show that both weights fall
Critical Angle
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In this optics activity, learners examine how a transparent material such as glass or water can actually reflect light better than any mirror.
Scaling Cubes
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In this activity, learners explore scale by using building cubes to see how changing the length, width, and height of a three-dimensional object affects its surface area and its volume.
Soap-Film Interference Model: Get on our wavelength!
Source Institutions
By making models of light waves with paper, learners can understand why different colors appear in bubbles.
Tired Weight
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Yes, you can weigh your car by figuring out your wheel's tire pressure combined with the "tire's footprint." You'll need someone with a car, driver's license, and safety in mind.
Corner Reflector
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In this optics/mathematics activity, learners use two hinged mirrors to create a kaleidoscope that shows multiple images of an object.
"Baseketball": A Physicist Party Trick
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This trick from Exploratorium physicist Paul Doherty lets you add together the bounces of two balls and send one ball flying.
A Mole of Gas
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In this two-part activity, learners use everyday materials to visualize one mole of gas or 22.4 liters of gas. The first activity involves sublimating dry ice in large garbage bag.
Inverted Foucault Pendulum
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In this demonstration, learners explore a variation of a Foucault pendulum, but upside down.
Three Circles of Pigments
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In this activity, learners overlap the three primary colors to see how all other colors are made.
Experimenting with Symmetry
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In this activity, learners use pattern blocks and mirrors to explore symmetry. Learners work in pairs and build mirror images of each other's designs.