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Where is the Sun?
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In this activity, learners verify that the Sun appears in a different location at a specific time every day of the year with one exception: on the Equinoxes.
Paper Cover Up
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In this activity on page 11 of the PDF, learners use candle wax to make "invisible" designs that are revealed with watercolor paints.
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.
Amazing Albedo
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In this experiment, learners work in teams to investigate how the color of a surface influences its ability to reflect light and therefore heat.
Newspaper Collage
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In this activity on page 3 of the PDF, learners create a collage by using vinegar to transfer color pictures from a newspaper onto a piece of white paper.
Rotating Light
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In this activity, learners explore what happens when polarized white light passes through a sugar solution.
Delta, Delta, Delta
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In this experiment, learners construct an equilateral triangle using graph paper, a pencil, protractor and ruler. They also make a "laser triangle" using a laser pointer and front-silvered mirrors.
Reflecting Rainbows: Decorate Your White Walls With Rainbow Colors!
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Like water drops in falling rain, a CD separates white light into all the colors that make it up.
Water Illusions: Refraction & Magnification
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Learners demonstrate how water can distort, refract and magnify light.
Bubble Tray
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In this activity, learners use simple materials to create giant bubbles.
Cylindrical Mirror
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In this activity, learners create a cylindrical mirror to see themselves as others see them.
Iridescent Art
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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.
An Ice Lens
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In this optics activity, learners discover basic lens-making techniques by using a tennis ball to make a lens out of ice.
Make a Prism
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In this activity, learners will make their own prism and use a glass of water to separate sunlight into different colors.
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.
Glue Stick Sunset
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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.
Kaleidoscope
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In this activity, learners build inexpensive kaleidoscopes using transparency paper and foil (instead of mirrors).
Eye Spy
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This fun activity uses simple materials such as milk cartons and mirrors to introduce the ideas of optics and visual perception.
Make a Telescope
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In this optics activity, learners make a simple telescope using two lenses and a cardboard tube. Learners construct the telescope and then calculate its magnification.