In this optics activity, learners discover that when they rotate a special black and white pattern called a Benham's Disk, it produces the illusion of colored rings. Learners experiment with the speed of rotation and direction of rotation to observe varying patterns. Use this activity to explain to learners how our eyes detect color and how different color receptors in the eye respond at different rates.
Material Type: Activity/Lab
Demonstrate the Bernoulli Principle using simple materials on a small or large scale. This resource includes two activities that allow learners to experience the Bernoulli Principle, in which an object is suspended in air by blowing down on it. Use this activity to explain how atomizers work and why windows are sometimes sucked out of their frames as two trains rush past each other.
Material Type: Activity/Lab
In this activity, a spinning bicycle wheel resists efforts to tilt it and point the axle in a new direction. Learners use the bicycle wheel like a giant gyroscope to explore angular momentum and torque. Learners can participate in the assembly of the Bicycle Wheel Gyro or use a preassembled unit to explore these concepts and go for an unexpected spin!
Material Type: Activity/Lab
Stare at one color—but see another. You see color when receptor cells (called cones) in your eye’s retina are stimulated by light. There are three types of cones, and each is sensitive to a particular color range. If one or more of the three types of cones adapts to a stimulus because of long exposure, it responds less strongly than it normally would.
Material Type: Activity/Lab
The eye’s retina receives and reacts to incoming light and sends signals to the brain, allowing you to see. One part of the retina, however, doesn't give you visual information—this is your eye’s “blind spot.”
Material Type: Activity/Lab
This activity provides instructions for using a flashlight and aquarium (or other container of water) to explain why the sky is blue and sunsets are red. When the white light from the sun shines through the earth's atmosphere, it collides with gas molecules with the blue light scattering more than the other colors, leaving a dominant yellow-orange hue to the transmitted light. The scattered light makes the sky blue; the transmitted light makes the sunset reddish orange. The section entitled What's Going On? explains this phenomena.
Material Type: Activity/Lab
In this optics activity, learners examine how polarized light can reveal stress patterns in clear plastic. Learners place a fork between two pieces of polarizing material and induce stress by squeezing the tines together. Learners will observe the colored stress pattern in the image of the plastic that is projected onto a screen using an overhead projector. Learners rotate one of the polarizing filters to explore which orientations give the most dramatic color effects. This activity can be related to bones, as bones develop stress patterns from the loads imposed upon them every day.
Material Type: Activity/Lab
Experiment with rocket designs and a PVC launcher to discover how high—and how far—you can make your rockets go.
Material Type: Activity/Lab
Here’s a new “spin” on an old toy. In this modern adaptation of a classic toy—the spool racer—a plastic water bottle is propelled by energy stored in a wound-up rubber band.
Material Type: Activity/Lab
Watch water boil at room temperature. The temperature at which water boils depends on pressure. You can demonstrate this by dramatically lowering the pressure on a water-filled plastic syringe at room temperature.
Material Type: Activity/Lab
Construct a protein through cereal additions. Model the central dogma of molecular biology by constructing a colorful chain using a simple code (and some delicious cereal).
Material Type: Activity/Lab
In this activity, learners observe what happens when they give a light source like a neon glow lamp a "Bronx Cheer." The lights appear to wiggle back and forth and flicker when learners blow air through their lips. However, learners will discover that the only thing vibrating is themselves. Use this activity to explore different forms of light as well as visual perception.
Material Type: Activity/Lab
In this activity, learners observe as soap bubbles float on a cushion of carbon dioxide gas. Learners blow bubbles into an aquarium filled with a slab of dry ice. Learners will be amazed as the bubbles hover on the denser layer of carbon dioxide gas, then begin to expand and sink before freezing on the dry ice. Use this activity to discuss sublimation, density, and osmosis as well as principles of buoyancy, semipermeability, and interference.
Material Type: Activity/Lab
Create giant bubbles! Bubbles are fascinating. What gives them their shape? What makes them break or last? What causes the colors and patterns in the soap film, and why do they change?
Material Type: Activity/Lab
Turn an old CD into a spectroscope to analyze light—you may be surprised by what you see. Try pointing your CD spectroscope at the fluorescent light in your room, sunlit clouds in the sky, even your friend’s colored shirt to reveal the wavelengths of light that mix together to create the color you see!
Material Type: Activity/Lab
Use your cell phone to explore the mini-scopic world. Open your eyes to the amazing world of the ultra-tiny when you convert your cell phone into a portable, picture-taking Miniscope using a simple plastic lens from a laser pointer.
Material Type: Activity/Lab
Every cell in your body needs to take in nutrients, oxygen, and raw materials and export wastes and other substances—but it’s not just a random traffic jam! A cell membrane (also called a plasma membrane) regulates what comes in and what goes out. Explore the properties of soap films and relate them to the properties of plasma membranes and the mechanics of transport across membranes.
Material Type: Activity/Lab
Here’s an easy way to find the center of gravity of a long, thin object, even if the object’s weight is unevenly distributed.
Material Type: Activity/Lab
In this activity about electricity, learners produce a spark that they can feel, see, and hear. Learners rub a Styrofoam plate with wool to give it an electric charge. Then, they use the charged Styrofoam to charge an aluminum pie pan. Essentially, learners build an electrophorus (Greek for "charge carrier"). This resource also contains instructions on how to build a large charge carrier called a "Leyden Jar" using a plastic film can.
Material Type: Activity/Lab
In this activity related to magnetism and electricity, learners create a magnetic field that's stronger than the Earth's magnetic field. Learners use electric currents that are stronger than the field of the Earth to move a compass needle. The assembly is made using a lantern battery, heavy wire, a Tinkertoy㢠set, and poster board and utilizes 4-6 small compasses and 2 electrical lead wires.
Material Type: Activity/Lab
