Making marbled paper

I've seen this project cited as a good way to demonstrate the different densities of different materials, but we used it when we were talking about color printing in books. This process, where the oil sticks to certain areas of the paper and not to others, is a lot like the way certain colors and dyes are transferred to the page when books and magazines are printed.

I don't know if we did it exactly right—our paper looked very pretty but not nearly like the papers she shows in this tutorial! Still, we had a fun time.

And here's another tutorial here, in case you don't have oil paints to use (we didn't).

Prisms, Rainbows, Light Scattering

We liked creating a prism with a mirror, light, and water (something similar is described here) and projecting the spectrum on the wall. So pretty!

Apparatus: water in pan, angled mirror, flashlight

We mixed three colored lights to make white light (additive)

Color mixing (subtractive)

"Daylight"

"Sunset light"

We learned about Tyndall Scattering in the atmosphere—that's the effect that makes the sky appear blue when the light is coming from overhead, and reddish when the light is coming at a sideways angle. A similar demonstration is described here.

Another brilliant spectrum on the wall, from a glass prism this time. It's so fun to play with prisms—I remember doing it for hours at a time when I was little.

Color temperature, and fireworks in Art and Music

For Art class, Sam taught us about the Kelvin Scale and color temperature. He showed us how we can apply this knowledge to make things we draw (flames and fireworks, for example) look HOT. We reviewed what is the hottest part of a flame here: http://thehappyscientist.com/science-video/hottest-part-flame (subscription required).

We all tried our hand at it. L-R from top: Sam's example, Abe, Marilyn, Ky, Seb, and Daisy

Then we looked at and discussed the paintings and drawings in this article: http://hyperallergic.com/28387/the-art-of-fireworks/

And these:
http://www.1st-art-gallery.com/James-Wilson-Carmichael/A-Fireworks-Display.html

http://www.backtoclassics.com/images/pics/giovannipaolopannini/giovannipaolopannini_piazzanavonainrome.jpg

We all really loved these daytime fireworks (they rely on colored smoke effects instead of fire!):
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2072514/Cai-Guo-Qiang-Chinese-artist-creates-fireworks-display-DAYTIME.html

We also listened to some music related to fireworks. There's Handel's Music for the Royal Fireworks, which is very regal and impressive, and also Debussy's Feux d'artifice (it's from Book II of the Preludes), which I'm partial to since I played it at one of my recitals in college. Both pieces are full of good discussion points: how does one re-create a visual effect without any visuals? Which musical devices make us think of explosions, smoke, sparks, etc? Why would the composer use the dynamics as he did? And so forth. Young kids are surprisingly good at talking about this sort of thing. It's really fun to see what they say.