Newton Wheel
This activity, from Solar Spark, allows students to investigate light and the eye. A template is provided that students can colour to produce a Newton Wheel. White light is made up of lots of different colours and by spinning the colours on the disc, the eye combines the spinning colours and sees the disc as if it were white. The…
Make Your Own Spectrometer
From Solar Spark, this simple activity allows students to make a spectrometer using a card box and a compact disc. The compact disc acts as a diffraction grating and splits the light being observed into its constituent wavelengths. This gives the colours of the rainbow when viewing white light. This type of analysis is applied in…
Tyndall Effect: Red Sky at Night
Produced by Solar Spark, this simple activity helps to answer the simple, yet complex question: Why is the sky blue and the sunset red? It's all to do with light scattering and the Tyndall Effect and can be easily demonstrated using a suspension of milk in water. Milk particles suspended in the water cause any light going…
Solar Cells and Light Absorption
Produced by Solar Spark, this activity looks at the relationship between light and absorption in solar cells. Using a photovoltaic cell and different colour acetate sheets, it demonstrates the ability of solar cells to absorb at different wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum and shows how the more it can absorb, the more power…
Solar Cell Straws
Produced by Solar Spark, this is a simple practical activity that can be used to show how a solar photovoltaic cell works. During a 45-60 minute session, students make solar cells out of cheap and readily accessible materials. The mechanism behind the solar cell is similar to that used in a dye-sensitised solar cell (DSSC) but uses…
Make a Graetzel Solar Cell
Produced by Solar Spark, this activity allows students to make a photovoltaic cell in the school laboratory. A solar cell uses light from the sun to produce electricity. A type of solar cell, called a dye-sensitised solar cell (DSSC), can be made. This type of cell is cheaper than other solar cells, and is now produced commercially.…