Exploratorium
Exploratorium: Science Snacks: Sound Sandwich
Make a simple wind instrument and use it to experiment with pitch.
Exploratorium
Exploratorium: Science Snacks: Spherical Reflections
Investigate the behavior of light that is reflected off a spherical mirrored surface.
Exploratorium
Exploratorium: Science Snacks: Spinning Blackboard
Explore the effects of drawing in a straight line within a rotating frame of reference. This activity requires a turntable. If this is unavailable, a cake turntable with a glued-on center post might work as well.
Exploratorium
Exploratorium: Science Snacks: Spinning Cylinder
Explore the motion of a cylinder that spins around its axis at the same time as it rotates around a line that is perpendicular to this axis.
Exploratorium
Exploratorium: Science Snacks: Squirming Palm
Create this optical illusion that incorporates what is known as the waterfall effect.
Exploratorium
Exploratorium: Science Snacks: Stereo Sound
Try this experiment to understand how your ears are able to locate where a sound is coming from.
Exploratorium
Exploratorium: Science Snacks: Strange Attractor
Explore the chaotic motion of a pendulum that is swinging above several magnets that are fixed in place and see what patterns you can find.
Exploratorium
Exploratorium: Science Snacks: Straw Oboe
Try making this straw oboe to explore the resonance characteristics of the sound it makes.
Exploratorium
Exploratorium: Science Snacks: Take It From the Top
Play with the center of gravity as you balance a set of blocks in a way that looks impossible.
Exploratorium
Exploratorium: Science Snacks: The Three Little Pigments
For this activity, you print different colors of the same image onto acetate, then explore the different color effects you get when they are overlaid on each other in various combinations.
Exploratorium
Exploratorium: Science Snacks: Thread the Needle
Learn about depth perception in this needle-threading activity.
Exploratorium
Exploratorium: Science Snacks: Tired Weight
Learn how the air pressure in tires can be used to determine the weight of an automobile.
Exploratorium
Exploratorium: Science Snacks: Touch the Spring
Explore the behavior of light as it reflects off a concave mirror in this optical illusion.
Exploratorium
Exploratorium: Science Snacks: Viral Packaging
Make an icosahedron, a shape with twenty triangular faces. This shape is used by most viruses to contain their genetic material in the most efficient way possible.
Exploratorium
Exploratorium: Science Snacks: Vocal Visualizer
Create a vocalizer device out of PVC piping and, with the help of a laser pointer, use it to project a visualization of the sound vibrations you make with it.
Exploratorium
Exploratorium: Science Snacks: Vortex
Investigate centripetal force in this activity where you create a mini-tornado in two connected soda bottles.
Exploratorium
Exploratorium: Science Snacks: Water Bottle Membranophone
Try making this instrument that incorporates a stretched membrane. As air is blown into the attached bottle, sound vibrations are produced. With the addition of finger holes, different sounds can be made.
Exploratorium
Exploratorium: Science Snacks: Whirling Watcher
Make a stroboscope and investigate how to make it seem like the image you look at appears to move.
Exploratorium
Exploratorium: Science Snacks: Your Father's Nose
After constructing a frame with a mirror made of horizontal strips, explore what your face would look like if it was made up of half of someone else's.
Exploratorium
Exploratorium: Science Snacks: Your Sense of Taste
Investigate the taste receptors on your tongue in this Life Saver tasting experiment.
Exploratorium
Exploratorium: Science Snacks: Afterimage
An activity that explains why you see an afterimage after looking at something bright like a camera flash or lamp. Understand that an afterimage is a lingering visual impression that happens as a result of the chemical changes in the...
Exploratorium
Exploratorium: Science Snacks: Anti Gravity Mirror
Using the property of reflection, this activity will have students appearing to defy gravity.
Exploratorium
Exploratorium: Science Snacks: Anti Sound Spring
Get a visual of how waves travel and interact by using a spring in this activity.
Exploratorium
Exploratorium: Science Snacks: Avalanche
In this activity, pour a salt-sand mixture into a CD case to notice how the particles separate themselves. Observe the effect known as granular convection as the smaller sand particles fall beneath the larger particles leaving a layered...