Ever made solar s'mores? Or recreated the solar system using peanuts? Astronomers young and old investigate all things solar using a variety of activities. Explore how the sun works, types of light it emits, and methods of charting the...

With a little light and a lot of time, you can create some amazing images. This NASA-related task instructs pupils to build a pinhole camera. The lesson provides suggestions for different pictures to try with the pinhole camera...

The concepts of refraction and reflection gel with your physical science class during this colorful exploration. Shining lasers through Petri-dish-shaped gelatin desserts, they will notice how the light travels and bounces off the sides....

Introduce teams to quantum dot solutions with an activity that has them expose solutions to a blacklight, observe the colors, and take measurements. Groups graph the data and analyze the dependence between particle size and...

Not only does a concave mirror focus light waves, it can also concentrate infrared radiation into a hot spot. If you have a small electric heater and such a mirror, demonstrate this for your physical science class.

Concave mirrors and the images they produce are traditional topics in the physics classroom. This resource explains how to set up an investigation of them, and it provides you with the explanation of concepts.

Lighten up a bit with this activity! Use an old-fashioned overhead projector to shine light through a pair of polarizing filters. Place a stressed plastic object in between and display the colors of light waves revealed! Rotate the...

In the last portion of the six-part unit, teams perform an experiment with gold nanoparticles to determine which sport drink has the most electrolytes. The nanoparticles are used as chemical sensors and fluoresce in different wavelengths...

Make sound visible with an activity that provides directions for how to build a vocal visualizer meant to create light patterns. Making noise into the visualizer causes a mirror to vibrate, reflecting a laser beam, and creating...

What better way to study the moon phases than to see them in action? The directions on the handout only have kids cut out and tape on the moon phases to make the flipbook, but it would be even more powerful to include the name of each...

Viewers use a small, dimmed flashlight to identify the blind spot for both the right and left eye. It is a simple activity to incorporate into your activities during a lesson on vision and the structure and function of the eyeball.

Hear from deep space. Pupils learn how satellites transfer information back to Earth. They learn about three different ways to modulate radio waves and how a satellite sends information with only 0s and 1s. Using sound, class members...

Why does it look like there is a man on the moon? Why does the moon look different every night? These are the focus questions of a lesson that prompts class members to observe and record the nightly changes of Earth's natural...

Bubbles aren't just for children. In the third installment of a seven-part series, teenagers use bubble solution to create bubbles and observe patterns of refraction on the bubble surfaces. Application of this concept to thin films in...

Let the true colors shine through. Pupils conduct a flame test to identify an unknown element. Class members calculate and prepare specific molarity solutions of three chemicals. Using their observations of the colors emitted, they...

What a bright idea! Young scientists conduct an experiment on flowers to finish the last of a six-lesson unit on Cells. Putting the stems into dye-injected water and leaving it overnight results in flowers that glow. This is to simulate...

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...

Here is a large collection of simple science class activities for understanding the physics of light.

In this science fair project, use an infrared thermometer to measure the temperature of differently colored paper exposed to sunlight, and calculate energy emission using the Stefan-Boltzmann equation. Find discussion questions, a list...

Reflection, refraction, and the colors that make up white light is explored through lab activities after reading a brief background about light energy.

In this science fair project, paint color pie slices onto a wheel and spin the wheel on an electric drill. See how colors add together to make new colors. The Science Buddies project ideas are set up consistently beginning with an...

If you live in a big city or urban area it is hard to see many stars at night. In most urban areas only the most brilliant stars, planets and the moon can be seen. This is because of something called light pollution which is the...

Student teams conduct an experiment that uses gold nanoparticles as sensors of chemical agents to determine which of four sports drinks has the most electrolytes. In this way, students are introduced to gold nanoparticles and their...