Let it Shine

Give youngsters the components of a solar-powered electric circuit and turn them loose to figure out how to connect them in order for a light to shine or motor to turn. They compare energy output of a solar panel to that of a battery. On...

What happens to light as it passes through a hole? This is the main question centered around the designing of a solar eclipse dynamic art piece that uses a solar eclipse and paper to create a pinhole projection of the art.

Light is such a fascinating subject. This lesson does a great job of illuminating the mysteries of light for your young scientists. A series of demonstrations which are explained in the plan should help your charges to understand how...

Why did the butterfly flutter by? To lay some eggs and restart the life cycle! This adorable application can be used from kindergarten through fifth grade to learn details of each stage of the Lepidopteran lifecycle: egg, caterpillar,...

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...

Students create colorful stained-glass Autumn window decorations. They shave crayons with scissors, melt the crayons in wax paper with an iron, and cut out a leaf pattern to display on windows.

Learners investigate the different types of sundials and their history.  In this shadows and time of day lesson students build their own sundials. 

Heat-sensitive liquid crystal sheets are available in a variety of sizes and temperature ranges. Purchase a class set of hand-held sheets and color half of each with a silver permanent marking pen. Learners of light can hold them under a...

Students act as travel agents to plan a trip for a migratory animal. They conduct research and design a travel brochure that includes a migratory route, illustrations of planned stopovers and special tourist attractions the animal might...

Students practice using a thermometer to determine how the air around the earth gets heated and cooled by the sun. Students chart the daily inside and outside temperature for two weeks.