Hold a small ball in one hand and shine a flashlight beam directly on to the middle of the ball. The center of the ball where the light is the most intense is similar to the way the sun shines at the Equator. Notice how the light is shining differently at the bottom of the ball. The light here is not as intense and demonstrates how the sun shines in the polar regions of Earth.
Pour one cup of milk into a shallow bowl and add three drops each of red, blue and yellow food coloring to the edge of the bowl. The three colors should be spaced equally apart. Do not mix or jiggle the bowl. Put a drop of dish soap into the center of the bowl. The dish detergent will not mix with the milk. It will spread over the surface and will grab the food coloring to combine and form new colors.
Draw a picture of a bird on an index card and a bird cage on another. Tape the 2 cards with the picture sides facing out, on either side of a ball point pen. Now, spin the pen between the palms of your hands. The bird will appear to be in the cage. This effect is called "persistence of vision." This demonstrates that our brains hold on to both images for a short time, even though the images are appearing and disappearing rapidly. The two images overlap in our brains so that it appears that the bird is in the cage.
This is an easy experiment that explores the different densities of three different liquids. Pour water into a test tube or small glass. Fill the container one-third full. Fill the container with an equal amount of maple syrup and cooking oil. The maple syrup will be at the bottom, the water will make-up the middle layer and the cooking oil will remain on the top. The liquids have different densities. The maple syrup is the densest of the three liquids, so it sinks to the bottom while the cooking oil is the least dense so it floats on top.