Use a container full of water as a prism and show that as light is bent, the individual colors from different wavelengths become visible. This explains why the sky appears to be blue midday, and why as the sun nears the horizon, it looks orange in color. This activity can easily be added to a lesson plan on light and refraction, the atmosphere, or the sun.

Concepts

light spectrum, light, refraction, the atmosphere

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Additional Tags

atmosphere, light spectrum, refraction, science

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Pros

• A simple activity that can be kept in your bag of tricks for a variety of teaching opportunities
• A thorough explanation is given on the webpage to help you explain concepts to your class

Cons

• None