Rainbows and sunsets are called "atmospheric optics". They can be caused by light being absorbed, reflected, scattered, refracted, or diffracted by particles in the atmosphere. Learn all about different atmospheric optics along with...

Young scholars learn about the basic properties of light and how light interacts with objects. They are introduced to the additive and subtractive color systems, and the phenomena of refraction. Students further explore the differences...

A few short, interactive activities on light waves can be found on this site. Numerous others links and teacher resources are posted here as well. A good background on light is offered for teachers.

A very comprehensive unit including topics such as light and its source, visible sources of light, transparency of objects and much more. Also offers a resource list, blackline masters, and expectation list, expectation summary and a...

Explains what optical illusions are and offers many examples to try.

A collection of intermediate experiments, for students aged ten and up, for exploring the magnification, reflection, and refraction of light.

In this instructional activity, students learn that light travels in a straight line from a light source and that ray diagrams help us understand how an image will be created by a lens. In the accompanying activity, students explore the...

An illustrated article helps students understand the concept of reflection of images and the differences in reflection with different optical devices.

This article from Khan Academy provides information about refraction and light bending. This information is intended for the Class 12 Physics Course (India).

Site studies light refraction and provides illustrations several illustration. Contains links to Snell's Law, lenses, ray optics, light and much more.

Download this Educators Guide to light, color, and their uses. Choose from different activities using lenses, prisms, hidden messages, periscopes, and kaleidoscopes

A timeline from prehistory to modern days of advances in optics and related disciplines, and of the people responsible for them. The timeline is categorized into distinct spans of time, each accompanied by extensive information.

Download this Educators Guide to light, color, and their uses. Choose from different activities using lenses, prisms, hidden messages, periscopes, and kaleidoscopes

Light! How do we see? What makes light? Find out everything you need to know through the Q&As on this site.

Explore bending of light between two media with different indices of refraction. See how changing from air to water to glass changes the bending angle. Play with prisms of different shapes and make rainbows.

Manipulate variables and measure angles as light is refracted in this interactive simulation.

Highly informational optic site for kids provides everything one might want to know about light. Various topics include light basics, controlling light, lenses, complex lenses, what's cool about lasers and much more!

This resource explores the science behind light and how mirrors reflect it. Also contains information on lenses both convex and concave.

In this activity, students can use a Light Sensor to measure reflection values from paper of various colors and compare these values to reflection values of aluminum foil. They will also calculate percent reflectivity.

The official website of SPIE, a professional organization for optical engineers. Contains links to career information, news about the industry, a technical library, and much more.

Part of an anecdotal history on optics and the study of light. Extremely thorough treatment of the scientific evidence which led scientists to believe in the particle nature of light. Includes a short biographical sketch and discusses...

Experiments and activities for investigating the science of light, as well as in-depth explanations of some of the light principles.

A collection of tutorials and interactive resources, from basic to advanced, that explain concepts related to the science of light.

A 36-page booklet of activities and experiments for exploring the properties of and nature of light. Includes a section on careers in optics. As this is a Girl Scouts booklet, it was created with girls in mind, but would be equally...