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In this activity, young learners will explore light and darkness through flashlight play.

In this activity, learners examine fingerprints. Learners leave a hidden print on a surface and then make their own print detecting powder from graphite (found in pencils).

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 activity, learners explore the different salinities of various sources of water by taste-testing.

In this activity (7th activity on the page), learners use their sense of hearing to find a "sound match." Learners shake containers filled with items like dry seeds, sand, beans, etc.

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

In this activity, learners discover how bats use echolocation to get information about objects in their environment. During the activity, one learner whispers into a tube.

In this activity, learners create a traditional Mexican noisemaker (a matraca) using cardboard, craft sticks, and a wooden dowel.

In this engineering design challenge, learners animate a facial expression and make a machine (zoetrope) that plays the animation back.

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 optics activity, learners discover basic lens-making techniques by using a tennis ball to make a lens out of ice.

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 create a xylophone by filling glasses with different amounts of water and tapping them with a metal spoon.

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 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.

In this invention challenge activity, learners see how many objects they can grab with a homemade "bionic" arm.

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