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

Is that right side of your brain yearning to express its artistic side? This is a project that blends art with science. Learn about light and colorful shadows in these experiments where you mix and match various colors of light to create...

In this engineering science fair project, students will determine which 3-D geometric shapes scatter light the most. The Science Buddies project ideas are set up consistently beginning with an abstract, objective, and introduction,...

In this electronics science fair project, students will investigate how the output of an LED flashlight changes as its temperature increases.

In this biotechnology science fair project, investigate how DNA damage affects growth of yeast that are DNA-repair deficient. The Science Buddies project ideas are set up consistently beginning with an abstract, objective, and...

Have you ever heard the expression "a canary in a coal mine"? In the 1900s and earlier, coal miners brought canaries with them into the mines to act as early warning signals. The canaries were very sensitive to low levels of dangerous...

What is light energy? Here we'll learn about the properties of light and how pigments such as chlorophylls absorb light energy.

Ozone in the stratosphere protects the earth by absorbing harmful ultraviolet radiation from the sun. However, when ozone occurs in the troposphere, it is harmful to health. In this project you can use data from EPA monitoring stations...

Science Buddies profiles careers you perhaps never even considered. Do you know what a power distributor and dispatcher does? Someone has to control the flow of electricity along the transmission lines to be sure nothing takes the power...

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

Think it takes expensive, sophisticated equipment to measure the speed of light? Think again. Outfit yourself with a simple handheld laser pointer, a protractor, and Jell-O, and you're ready to get started.

In this electronics science fair project, students will make a simple dimmer switch and investigate the relationship between the resistance in the circuit and the amount of light produced. The Science Buddies project ideas are set up...

Strike a key on the piano, and you hear the string vibrating. Just about any object vibrates when it's knocked, but how much and how fast? This project helps you find out. You'll build a simple light-sensing circuit for measuring the...

Visible light waves are the only electromagnetic waves we can see. We see these waves as the colors of the rainbow. Each color has a different wavelength. Red has the longest wavelength and violet has the shortest wavelength. When all...

This video segment adapted from Shedding Light on Science illustrates how light changes speed, and thus direction, in a process known as refraction. Includes background reading and discussion questions. [2:05]

A collection of projects that recreated Isaac Newton's experiments as he would have built them in the seventeenth century. The projects include the mechanical advantage possible using three levers, the trajectory of a projectile, air...

You've probably noticed the colorful patterns "reflecting" from the shiny surface of a CD disk. What you are seeing is actually diffraction of white light, and the rainbows of color are diffraction patterns. In this project you'll learn...

A very simple device to convert light into sound can be made by wiring a solar cell directly to headphones (or an earpiece). The solar cell converts light into electricity and the headphones convert electricity into sound. The limitation...

A detailed discussion of the nature of light, how it can travel through a vacuum, and how the speed of light is affected when light travels through a medium.

Students will understand the concept of the ray model of light and how light interacts with matter and reflections.

This elegant project employs a scientific approach that is particularly valuable in Environmental Science, but can be applied to other areas as well. The approach has three steps: 1) from your observations in the field, form a...

Learn about how the intensity of light is governed by the inverse-square law with this activity. Activity has you experimenting to find that the intensity of light decreases as the inverse square of the distance.

Students will determine the effect of placing objects made with different materials in the path of a beam of light. This lesson plan includes background information, guiding questions, directions, and a chart to record data.

Make your own rainbow candy in this fun STEM activity. You will do it without using any food coloring. Instead, you will use a light-bending phenomenon called diffraction.