Recently in Weekly Spotlight Category

• "Reveal the Red: Exploring the Chemistry of Red Flower Pigments" (full Science Buddies Project Idea)
• "Springtime Science: Exploring the Pigments in Flowers" (science activity at Scientific American)

• "Crazy Crystal Creations: How to Grow the Best and the Largest Crystals" (full Science Buddies Project Idea)
• "Solubility Science: How to Grow the Best Crystals" (science activity at Scientific American)

In this week's spotlight: a pair of projects that explore the way the brain interprets a series of images. Both traditional cartoon animation and stop motion animation (like claymation) rely on the brain viewing a sequence of images as "in motion." By creating easy and fun flip-book animations, you and your students can explore how this optical illusion works—and how much information the brain can "fill in" and still perceive motion. These science project and activity procedures guide you through either an independent student project or a fun family exploration:

• "Apparent Motion & Animation" (full Science Buddies Project Idea)
• "Set-in-Motion Science: Apparent Movement in Flip-Books" (science activity at Scientific American)

In this week's spotlight: a pair of projects that put your understanding of balance to the test! What makes some things topple and other things stable? Use marshmallows and wooden sticks to explore how the distribution of an object's mass determines how the object will balance. You can investigate using these science project and activity procedures:

• "Circus-Trick Science: How to Balance Anything" (full Science Buddies Project Idea)
• "Circus Science: How to Balance Anything" (science activity at Scientific American)

• "Candy Chromatography: What Makes Those Colors?" (full Science Buddies Project Idea)
• "Solution Science: Colorful Candy Chromatography" (science activity at Scientific American)

In this week's spotlight: a pair of eggy projects that are just in time for more Easter-inspired science with your family! Explore the soft boiling of eggs in our updated cooking and food science project and in the family-friendly activity at Scientific American's Bring Science Home.

• "Egg-cellently Cooked Eggs: The Process of Soft-Boiling an Egg" (full Science Buddies Project Idea)
• "Soft-Boiled Science: Egg-cellently Cooked Eggs" (science activity at Scientific American)

In this week's spotlight: a pair of art-meets-chemistry projects perfect for Easter-inspired science with your family! Explore the process of using silk ties to dye eggs in our updated chemistry project and in the family-friendly activity at Scientific American's Bring Science Home.

• Dye Eggs Using Silk Ties for Egg-cellent Colors (full Science Buddies Project Idea)
• Silky Science: Tie-Dyeing Eggs (science activity at Scientific American)

In this week's spotlight: a pair of green-thumb projects straight from the pages of science fiction! Growing a cabbage plant from a piece of cabbage is a great way to explore one kind of plant reproduction and the process of plant cloning. But what piece of the plant do you use? Explore plant cloning in our updated plant biology project and in the family-friendly activity at Scientific American's Bring Science Home.

• Attack of the Killer Cabbage Clones (full Science Buddies Project Idea)
• Sci-Fi Science: Attack of the Cabbage Clones (activity at Scientific American)

In this week's spotlight: a hands-on kitchen science investigation. What happens when you mix sand and water and how does the resulting mixture compare to a mixture of cornstarch and water? Learn more about mixtures, solutions, and colloids in this pair of fun, tactile science projects:

• Making Mixtures: How Do Colloids Size Up? (full Science Buddies Project Idea)
• Starchy Science: Creating Your Own Colloid (activity at Scientific American)

In this week's spotlight: a pair of paper airplane science projects that turn ordinary paper airplane folding and flying into a fun hands-on science activity. Explore the effect of drag on flight in our updated aerodynamics project and in the family-friendly activity at Scientific American's Bring Science Home.

• How Far Will It Fly? Build & Test Paper Planes with Different Drag (full Science Buddies Project Idea)
• Soaring Science: Test Paper Planes with Different Drag (activity at Scientific American)

In this week's spotlight: a pair of science projects related to a favorite summer or camp activity—tie dye. Don't miss our freshly updated hands-on chemistry project and a family-friendly version at Scientific American's Bring Science Home.

• How to Make the Boldest, Brightest Tie-Dye! (full Science Buddies Project Idea)
• Staining Science: Make the Boldest, Brightest Dye! (activity at Scientific American)

This week's spotlight pays tribute to Valentine's Day with a trio of health and human biology science projects that let students better understand how the heart works and how doctors can listen in to monitor a person's heart beat. Our hands-on science Project Idea guides independent student exploration. The classroom activity assists teachers with a short and easy to prepare classroom activity. And the new activity at Scientific American's Bring Science Home offers a related, family-focused exploration, perfect for home!

• Make Your Own Stethoscope (full Science Buddies Project Idea)
• Measuring Heart Rate with Your Own Stethoscope (classroom activity)
• Stethoscope Science: Hearing Heart Rates (activity at Scientific American)

Image: Bigstock

In this week's spotlight: a pair of science projects that enable student and family exploration of left- and right-side dominance. Don't miss our newly updated hands-on science Project Idea for student exploration of this health and human biology topic and a related, family-focused, home activity at Scientific American's Bring Science Home.

• Are You Left or Right Sided? (full Science Buddies Project Idea)
• Side-Dominant Science: Are You Left- or Right-Sided? (activity at Scientific American)