This segment from Swift: Eyes through Time traces the history military officers and engineers discovering a strange phenomenon in the sky that astronomers now know are gamma-ray bursts.
In this demonstration, amaze learners by performing simple tricks using mirrors. These tricks take advantage of how a mirror can reflect your right side so it appears to be your left side. To make the effect more dramatic, cover the mirror with a cloth, climb onto the table, straddle the mirror, and then drop the cloth as you appear to "take off." This resource contains information about how this trick was applied during the making of the movie "Star Wars."
At first glance, Katena might look like an ordinary inflatable with an unusually complex and oversized structure. But when they walk inside, visitors soon realize this is an entirely different experience. They enter a world apart, a world of interconnecting tunnels and domes saturated with light and color, called a luminarium. This video will take your students on a virtual tour of one luminarium that was featured at the Cincinnati BLINK festival. They will learn how the design team of Architects of Air blends geometry, art, and architecture to create a pneumatic, or air-filled, structure in which form must follow function.
CK-12 Basic Physics - Second Edition updates CK-12 Basic Physics and is intended to be used as one small part of a multifaceted strategy to teach physics conceptually and mathematically.
In this optics activity, learners discover that when they rotate a special black and white pattern called a Benham's Disk, it produces the illusion of colored rings. Learners experiment with the speed of rotation and direction of rotation to observe varying patterns. Use this activity to explain to learners how our eyes detect color and how different color receptors in the eye respond at different rates.
In this video adapted from NASA, two members of a NASA research team working to produce carbon nanotubes share some background behind this new technology, show examples of how it will be useful, and explain the various tests being performed to ensure readiness for spaceflight.
This activity provides instructions for using a flashlight and aquarium (or other container of water) to explain why the sky is blue and sunsets are red. When the white light from the sun shines through the earth's atmosphere, it collides with gas molecules with the blue light scattering more than the other colors, leaving a dominant yellow-orange hue to the transmitted light. The scattered light makes the sky blue; the transmitted light makes the sunset reddish orange. The section entitled What's Going On? explains this phenomena.
In this activity, learners observe what happens when they give a light source like a neon glow lamp a "Bronx Cheer." The lights appear to wiggle back and forth and flicker when learners blow air through their lips. However, learners will discover that the only thing vibrating is themselves. Use this activity to explore different forms of light as well as visual perception.
It is very dangerous to look directly at the Sun, even briefly. In this craft activity, you will create a safe viewer so you can look at the Sun without damaging your eyes.
4th grade physical science unit focusing on waves and transference of energy.
Turn an old CD into a spectroscope to analyze light—you may be surprised by what you see. Try pointing your CD spectroscope at the fluorescent light in your room, sunlit clouds in the sky, even your friend’s colored shirt to reveal the wavelengths of light that mix together to create the color you see!
Build circuits with resistors, light bulbs, batteries, and switches and take measurements with laboratory equipment like the realistic ammeter and voltmeter.
This article continues an examination of each of the seven essential principles of climate literacy on which the online magazine Beyond Weather and the Water Cycle is structured. Principle 2 covers the complex interactions among the components of the Earth system. The author discusses the scientific concepts underlying the interactions and expands the discussion with diagrams, photos, and online resources.
This video from NASA describes the detailed computer modeling used to predict that colliding neutron stars can produce gamma-ray bursts similar to those associated with black holes.
In this optics activity, learners discover that not all shadows are black. Learners explore human color perception by using colored lights to make additive color mixtures. With three colored lights, learners can make shadows of seven different colors. They can also explore how to make shadows of individual colors, including black. Use this activity demonstrate how receptors in the retina of the eye work to see color.
This article lists common misconceptions about light, heat, and the sun. It provides formative assessment probes and information about teaching for conceptual change.
In this video segment adapted from ZOOM, two solar cookers are tested against a control to see which can cook a "s'more" faster.
This video from NASA features the Cosmic Origin Spectrograph (COS), which allows scientists to use spectrographic analysis to assess the composition of intergalactic material.
In this video from NOVA scienceNOW, learn how scientists detect potential signs of life on distant planets.
In this optics activity, demonstrate diffraction using a candle or a small bright flashlight bulb and a slide made with two pencils. Learners will observe the diffraction pattern and learn that light has wavelike properties.