This activity invites K–5 students, in both English and Spanish, to explore the phenomena of rolling objects down a ramp and investigate the question, “What happens to a roller when you change the ...

See yourself as others see you in this cylindrical mirror. A flat mirror will always reflect an image that's right side up and reversed right to left. A cylindrical mirror can produce images that are ...

Make a simple mini-motor. A coil of wire becomes an electromagnet when current passes through it. The electromagnet interacts with a permanent magnet, causing the coil to spin. Voilà! You’ve created ...

Store up an electric charge, then make sparks. Tired of electrostatic experiments that just won’t work? This experiment will produce a spark that you can feel, see, and hear. Rub a foam plate with ...

The distribution of the mass of an object determines the position of its center of gravity, its angular momentum, and your ability to balance it. Place a lump of clay about the size of your fist ...

The pneumatic tire and the chain drive, followed by the development of gears, revolutionized bicycling in the later 1800s. In the last fifteen years, there has been a revolution of sorts in the ...

If you want to stay hidden, you’d better stay still. Some animals blend in with their surroundings so well that they’re nearly impossible to see. Only when these animals move can you detect their ...

Build a paper-pencil-pin phonograph. In this classic activity, make a record player out of simple materials and listen to your favorite vinyl LP—no outlet required. Starting in one corner, roll the ...

With polarized light, you can make a stained glass window without glass. Using transparent tape and polarizing material, you can make and project beautifully colored patterns reminiscent of abstract ...

Measure the height of an object indirectly using your hand and a ratio. Many of the numbers we use in science have never been measured directly; we only know them from indirect measurements. How far ...

Polarizing sunglasses cut road glare better in some positions than in others. When light reflects from water, asphalt, or other nonmetallic surfaces, it becomes polarized—that is, the reflected light ...

Discover why the sky is blue and the sunset is red. When sunlight travels through the atmosphere, blue light scatters more than the other colors, leaving a dominant yellow-orange hue to the ...