Share and decode secret messages with this DIY Blacklight hack!
Have you ever wanted to make something glow under a blacklight? Let us teach you one of our favorite hacks to make glowing highlighter messages and drawings at home with this DIY blacklight tutorial!
Recommended Age: 5+. Younger scientists will enjoy making and revealing their messages and drawings, but may need help putting together the DIY blacklight hack.
Materials you will need:
A phone with a camera light
Clear tape
A blue marker (a permanent marker, like a Sharpie, works best)
A purple marker (a permanent marker, like a Sharpie, works best)
White paper
A fluorescent highlighter (yellow works best)
Directions:
STEP 1:
Rip off a small piece of tape (fold some of it over to make a tab for easy clean up later) and place the piece of tape over the camera light on the phone. Make sure you place the tape over the LIGHT, not the camera!
STEP 2:
With the blue marker, color the portion of tape over the light. You don’t need to color in the entire piece of tape; you just want to make sure the area directly over the light is colored.
STEP 3:
Place another piece of tape over the first. Color the area over the light blue again.
STEP 4:
Place one more piece of tape on top of the others. This time, color the area over the light purple.
STEP 5:
Draw a picture or message on white paper with your highlighter.
STEP 6:
Grap your picture and turn off the lights or go somewhere dark. Then turn on the camera light on your phone and shine the light onto your picture.
The Science Behind This Blacklight Hack:
Many highlighters fluoresce, or absorb then emit light, which makes them glow in the dark. But why?
Light is a spectrum. What we can see is called visible light. It ranges from red light to purple light. However, there are other types of light, including infrared and ultraviolet light (or UV) light. UV light is what a blacklight emits.
When you colored the tape with blue and purple markers, you created a filter that blocked out all colors of visible light except blue and purple. With the rest of the visible light spectrum blocked out, the resulting blue and purple light were enough to make the highlighter fluoresce because the wavelengths of purple and blue light are close enough to the UV spectrum, even though there is minimal UV light actually present.
Highlighters fluoresce under a normal blacklight because the ink absorbs ultraviolet light, which isn’t visible to the human eye, and remits it as visible light.
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Follow the instructions for cardboard animals and make a new friend. Literally!
Pangolins are strange little creatures. They are very hard to keep in captivity, so you probably have never seen one in a zoo. So what are these animals, and why are they important? As you follow along with the instructions for cardboard animals, learn a little more about our pangolin pals!
Pangolins are mammals that are completely covered in scales. They are solitary animals and primarily nocturnal. Pangolins eat ants and termites specific to their region of the world. They have no teeth, so they catch bugs with their sticky tongue. They curl up into a ball when under attack; their scales protect them against most predators. There are eight species of pangolin across Africa and Asia, and all of them range from vulnerable to critically endangered. The primary threat to pangolins is illegal wildlife trade for their meat and their scales. This severely harms the pangolin population, and sometimes harms humans – removing scales can subject people to disease.
Pangolins are extremely important to their ecosystems! They eat most of the time they’re awake, so they control the insect population in a huge way. They also dig up soil while they look for food or when they burrow, which aerates it and creates a healthier surface for plants to grow in. When their burrows are abandoned, other animals move in and are protected.
Materials you will need:
A soda box (or a few cereal or granola bar boxes)
A hot glue gun
Scissors
Optional: a strip of paper for the pangolin’s tongue
Instructions for Cardboard Animals: Pangolin
Step 1: Cut out a body shape (like a rounded x) and strips for the neck and tail – make sure it’s wide enough to hold some scales!
Step2: Make a small cone for the head. You can do this by cutting a strip of the box and rolling it tightly from one corner, then cutting off the excess. Glue the cone together.
Step 3: Glue the head cone to the neck and onto the body. DON’T glue the tail on yet.
Step 4: Now for the tough part – let’s cut some scales! Scales are teardrop shaped, but they don’t all need to be exactly the same. Variety looks natural.
20 small scales, about the size of your thumbnail
35 medium scales, about the size of your thumbprint
40 large scales, about the size of a guitar pick
Step 5: Start gluing scales to your pangolin's head, legs, neck, and tail.
Glue a small scale to each leg with the point facing down.
Glue 7 small scales to the head, layering on top as you move backwards on the pangolin’s body.
Glue 7 small scales to one end of the tail, layering on top as you move forwards on the pangolin’s body.
Step 6: Now, let’s create some body structure. Create a trapezoid shape where the smaller end is about the size of the back of the pangolin’s head with the scales on.
Step 7: Create a slightly larger trapezoid than the first one. Then, create one more, larger than the middle one.
Give each trapezoid shape some curve, like an arch.
Step 8:Glue some scales onto the smallest trapezoid, starting with layers of small scales. You can use all the rest of your small scales and move onto medium if you have room. Don’t over layer – just fill in spots where you can see the trapezoid underneath.
Step 9: Glue the smallest trapezoid to the body shape.
Step 10: Repeat steps 6-7 with medium and large trapezoids.
Glue some scales onto the medium trapezoid, a row or two of medium and then large.
Glue the medium trapezoid so it’s layered slightly underneath the smallest trapezoid.
Glue some scales onto the largest trapezoid.
Glue the largest trapezoid so it’s layered slightly underneath the medium trapezoid.
*If you need it, you can fold up a piece of cardboard to slip between the body shape and the trapezoid for support.
Step 11: Add the finishing touches
Glue the tail onto the largest trapezoid.
Fill in the tail with medium or large scales.
Fill in the legs with medium scales with the point facing downwards.
*Optional: curl up a thin strip of paper and glue it in the mouth to represent the tongue.
Step 12: Name your pangolin!
How can you help pangolins? The biggest challenge is education – most people don’t know that pangolins exist! Tell your friends about these cute little creatures. You can also support wildlife sanctuaries and advocacy groups.
Expand on this activity
Learn more about pangolins!
Why do we know so little about pangolins? Because of their natural behaviors and specific diet, only a few sanctuaries exist where their natural behaviors can be observed or they can be studied up close.
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Stitch outside the box with these different embroidery techniques
There’s something to be said about a hobby that requires you slow down and build something bit by bit, piece by piece. Embroidery can be a fantastically fulfilling way to find some peace while beautifying your home along the way. It’s important to cultivate hobbies to calm your mind!
First, let’s address the difference between cross-stitch and embroidery techniques. Embroidery, simply, is making patterns and designs on fabric or other materials using a needle and thread (or sometimes yarn). You can use different embroidery techniques, like satin stitch, chain stitch, backstitch, ladder stitch, and many others. Cross-stitch is a form of embroidery using a specific x-shaped stitch in a counted, grid pattern, much like pixel art, counting stitches to create a uniform design.
We’re going to focus on embroidery overall in this post.
Beginning with the basics:
Here is a great Instructables class to get you started with basic embroidery technique – it provides a really good overview of the materials, techniques, and terminology you need to understand to get going.
Jessica Marquez, a Brooklyn maker who runs a shop called Miniature Rhino, wrote a series of beautiful articles for Design Sponge on how to use different embroidery techniques to make a unique scarf, constellation table runner using the French dot stitch, an embroidered pillowcase, as well as a playful way to embellish a plain t-shirt if you need a bit of extra luck.
Simple yet stylish Sashiko:
Sashiko is a form of decorative reinforcement stitching (or functional embroidery) from Japan that started out of practical need. The Sashiko embroidery technique creates a beautifully geometric design using a simple running stitch.
Watch and Learn:
If you’re a visual person, Cutsey Craft's YouTube channel has a variety of playlists that allow you to watch someone hand sew different stitches with expert insider tips and tricks!
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Celebrate Pride by Making These Pulse Nightclub Tribute Origami Hearts
This month, we celebrate Pride – a celebration of both the amazing people who fought for the rights of LGBTQ+ people and honoring the diverse self-expression and love of our LGBTQ+ community.
If you’ve been to the Science Center, you may have seen our Love Bridge – an installation of crystal hearts that hang above you as you walk across the bridge from the garage. This was originally made of origami hearts as a Pulse nightclub tribute in memoriam of the 49 people who lost their lives in June of 2016.
The Pulse tragedy deeply affected our community and the people of Orlando have continued to honor the souls we lost that night by working to make sure our city becomes a more welcoming place for all people. Inside each origami heart, our guests and staff wrote messages of what love means to them. We invite you to create your own reminder of love with this origami heart tutorial.
As we celebrate Pride, and remember the victims of the Pulse tragedy, we invite you to create your own reminder of love with this origami heart tutorial.
Materials you will need:
Origami paper or a sheet of printer paper you can turn it into a square. Learn how to use any paper for origami paper here.
Before you make any folds in your paper, write a message about love – what does it mean to you?
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The "Love Bridge" is a community art project created by guests of the Orlando Science Center to show support for the OneOrlando.org fund and those affected by the PULSE Nightclub tragedy.
The 7 colors of the rainbow span the length of the bridge in rows of 4. Each row holds a total of 49 origami hearts which represent the lives lost on that tragic night. The origami hearts were made by the community on One Orlando Night at the Museum and are filled with messages of love and hope.
The original origami heart installation has been replaced with a crystal version that will withstand the test of time. The original project was reimagined into a permanent tribute called Facets of Love, which hangs in our STEAM Gallery for all to enjoy.
Orlando Science Center One Orlando night, photo by Roberto Gonzalez
Expand on the activity!
June is Pride Month in the United States. Pride Month is a time to recognize past and present struggles and successes in the ongoing fight for civil rights, as well as to celebrate the accomplishments of LGBTQ+ individuals.
Meet some of the incredible scientists who self-identified as members of LGBTQ+ community and have left a lasting mark on the STEM fields with both their activism and scientific research.
Give your old clothes new life with this puffy paint technique!
Looking for an easy way to customize a t-shirt, tote bag, or even a pair of jeans? Have you been burned in the past with attempting to free-hand a design with puffy paint? Never fear, we’ve got the solution! With this puffy paint technique, you have a chance to refine your design and keep yourself from suffering the agony of using puffy paint with a shaky hand.
Materials you will need:
A t-shirt, tote bag, jeans, or another garment you want to add your design to
Fabric puffy paint (look for the kind with a thin nozzle, especially if your image has a lot of detail)
A pencil
A piece of paper large enough for your design
Directions:
Step 1:
Sketch or print out the design you want on a sheet of paper.
This puffy paint technique will mirror the image, so draw the image flipped from how you want it to appear on the shirt.
Step 2:
Prepare your garment. Make sure the area for the design is flat and protect your garment by sliding a piece of cardboard inside your garment where you want your design to go so the paint doesn't bleed through.
Step 3:
Next, trace over the design in puffy paint. You want to work pretty fast so the paint doesn’t try before you finish your design.
Step 4:
Pick up the paper and place it paint side down on your shirt in the spot you want your design. Press down all over the back of the paper to push the paint into the fabric, but try not to move the paper around. Peel off the paper and you have your design!
If any of the paint dried too much and didn't transfer, you can go over them with the paint directly on the shirt and press down with a clean sheet of paper. Alternatively, retrace your original design, carefully line it up, and repeat the process. Enjoy!
Expand on the activity!
Customize your clothing further with these DIY homemade stamps!
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In these ever-changing times, it is our pleasure to adapt quality Orlando Science Center experiences to engage with everyone while they are safe at home. Please consider supporting our operating fund to ensure we can continue developing resources today and well into the future. Thank you for your generosity and support!
Prototyping fails are a part of science. Check out some of ours!
Sometimes you don't get it right on the first try, or the second, or the thirtieth. But that's OK! In science, prototyping fails are a big part of the process. We try to always showcase our best work, but here are some messiest mistakes with you in honor of Mess Month! Enjoy!
Rainbow So-dud
We tried to do a Diet Coke and Mentos style fountain with different colored sodas to make a rainbow! We even invited some guests to watch us prototype, but as you can see it did not make for a quality show.
Indoor Foam-splosion
Leading up to Mess Fest last year, we invited some news anchors to come experience the mess with us outdoors. The weather didn’t cooperate with our plans, so we moved inside. We had forgotten how messy a foam explosion really is!
Diet Coke Disaster
During Mess Fest, we do several Diet Coke and Mentos fountains. In 2019, we bought 30 Diet Coke bottles for the occasion. Only 29 made it inside – one exploded at our loading dock.
You Don't Want to Eat This Spaghetti
If you’ve done our 3D Design workshop in The Hive, you know how that even the smallest flaw in a 3D print can make things go awry. Whether it was the leveling of the print bed, the design sticking to the extruder, or something else, this vase did not turn out as expected.
Basket Weaving Misadventure
We’ve been pretty lucky with our open make activities in The Hive. Usually, we prototype for a day or two, make adjustments, and end up with a successful activity. Basket weaving did not go this way! We ended up using most of our supplies in one day and ending up with a tangled mess of paper rods.
A Colossal Cleanup
KidsTown gets messy on purpose pretty often – sensory play is an engaging way to learn fine motor skills, cause and effect, and more. But the cleanup can be a different story! Our staff and interns had to scrub for a long time to get all the paint off their hands!
What science mishaps have you had?
Be sure to submit your photos and videos of your experiments to our Science Showcase here or tag Orlando Science Center on social media and use hashtag #OSCatHome for a chance to be featured on our channels!
As Miss Frizzle says, take chances, make mistakes, and get messy!
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Get a round up of our latest activities and ideas delivered straight to your inbox so you don't miss a thing!
Find out when we release new resources by following us on social media!
Follow us on social media for even more science fun including fun facts, games, behind-the-scenes photos, and more!
Support OSC At Home
In these ever-changing times, it is our pleasure to adapt quality Orlando Science Center experiences to engage with everyone while they are safe at home. Please consider supporting our operating fund to ensure we can continue developing resources today and well into the future. Thank you for your generosity and support!
