NeoK12 offers a set of YouTube videos explaining and illustrating light, optics, reflection, refraction, visible spectrum, electromagnetic spectrum, wave particles, and lenses. All videos and lessons on this site have been reviewed by K-12 teachers and are safe for kids.
Optical Illusions
Tease your brain with more than a dozen optical illusions. Exploratorium shows how our brain and visual perception interact to deceive us.
81 Optical Illusions & Visual Phenomena
There are some amazing optical illusions shown here through computer graphics in motion. While the illusions can be enjoyed by students of any age, the accompanying explanations will most likely require a teacher’s interpretation for K-12 students to understand them.
Exploring the Science of Light
This site is devoted to everything optics. You will find cool activities combining Jell-O and laser pointers, definitions of terms like acousto-optics and retroreflection, profiles of optics celebs who are changing our world and an optics timeline stretching from prehistory to the present. Check out the tutorial interactives and optical illusions that are sure to freak you out!
So get started on your exploration and get ready to be OPTICIFIED!
Causes of Color
From site: Why are things colored? There are three causes. Repeatedly over and over in innumerable variety, they create our colorful world. Light is made in the yellow glow of a candle. Light is lost when sunlight filters through stained glass. Light is moved when the sky turns crimson at sunset…
Scholars have learned that all the colors in the universe originate from a mere fifteen fundamental physical causes. These causes appear over and over, lending color to the world around us. Some common causes seem logical — for example, both light bulbs and candles are colored by incandescence — and others are surprising — did you know that the colors of peacock feathers and bubbles are both caused by interference?
