
Home Lab 1
Activities
1.1 Focusing a laser and LED light using a camera lens
1.2 Changing the intensity of a laser beam using a polarising filter
1.3 Look below the surface of water using a polarising filter
1.4 Why roads look darker on a wet night
1.5 Burn a hole in a leaf by concentrating the light of the Sun
2.1 Make a Lego model of the atmosphere
2.2 Refraction of a violet laser beam in tonic water
2.3 Shine a laser through a glass of water to make a twinkling star
2.4 Shine a violet laser vertically down into a glass of tonic water
2.5 Use fairy lights to demonstrate why planets don’t twinkle
3.1 Shine a light through milky water to make a sunset
3.2 Shine sunlight through a prism to make a rainbow
4.1 Shine a RGB LED light through milky water to investigate scattering
4.2 Shining RGB lasers through milky water to investigate scattering
5.1 Observing the new moon
5.2 Draw the main features of the near side of the moon
5.3 Make your own lunar craters
6.1 Reflect a LED light off a bike retroreflector
6.2 Reflect a violet laser off a mirror and a bike retroreflector in tonic water
6.3 Make your own retroreflector
6.4 See animal eyes at night
6.5 Make a scale model of the Earth-Moon system
6.6 See what the Earth looks like from the Moon
6.7 The Cosmic Seesaw
7.1 "Using a Lazy Susan, ball, and LED light to model a lunar eclipse"
7.2 Bite an apple to see the thickness of the skin relative to the apple
7.3 Refraction of light through the sides of a round glass
7.4 A prism as a model of the Earth’s atmosphere
7.5 Observing the shadow of the Earth and Belt of Venus
8.1 "Recreating lunar phases using a Lazy Susan, ball, and LED light"
8.2 Demonstrating the difference between synodic and sidereal months
9.1 Squeezing a balloon in a net to demonstrate lunar generated tides
9.2 Modelling the torque that slowed the rotation of the Moon
9.3 Using a bike wheel to demonstrate why the same side of the Moon faces the Earth
10.1 The Moon Illusion
10.2 Using a Perspex tube and ball to simulate atmospheric distortion close to the horizon
10.3 Fractal coastlines
10.4 Fractal geometry
10.5 Observing marine creatures in the intertidal zone
11.1 Demonstrating the reason for the seasons using a LED light and globe
11.2 Use a barbecue to feel the difference between summer and winter
11.3 Observing the change in the position of sunrise throughout the year
11.4 Demonstrating precession of the equinoxes using a spinning top
11.5 "Use Stellarium to see the Sun in Cancer and Capricorn at the solstices 2,000 years ago"
11.6 Understanding the need for leap years using a laser and Lazy Susan
12.1 Newton’s first law - rolling a marble down a track
12.2 Newton’s second law – timing the drop of two objects of different mass
12.3 Newton’s second law – dropping a feather on a book
12.4 Newton’s third law – letting go of a balloon
13.1 Timing the fall of a vertical ball and a ball with horizontal motion
13.2 Weighing an object in free fall
13.3 Weightlessness in a bottle
14.1 Momentum transfer by a stationary ball - an inelastic collision
14.2 Collisions between a moving and stationary ball - an elastic collision
14.3 A collision between two steel balls
14.4 Collision between two balls and a stationary steel ball
14.5 Take a movie of a ball bouncing off a bat
15.1 Demonstrating Archimedes’ Principle by floating a bowl in water
16.1 Blowing bubbles to see surface tension in action
16.2 Floating a paper clip on water
17.1 Feel the pressure increase with depth of water
17.2 Demonstrate that the shape of a container does not affect pressure
17.3 Make a water leveller
18.1 Weigh an object in water at different depths
18.2 Getting a robot fish to swim vertically down
19.1 Using a slinky to demonstrate transverse and longitudinal waves
19.2 Tapping an empty and full wine glass to model moon and earthquakes