Glasses with a diffraction grating lens can be used as a fun tool for visual and inexpensive experiments about light. Students of all ages can learn about how light from different sources is composed of different wavelengths. For older students this item can be used as part of a more sophisticated lesson in light physics.
Let your students look with the glasses at various different light sources, such as a black light, an infrared light, a full spectrum white light and a light for a photo lab and get them to make a drawing of each spectrum in their science journals and compare the spectra. This lesson can be done with kids as young as first grade.
You can make your own glasses with a piece of diffraction grating material (you can buy some from a plastics company), or buy them inexpensively.
Do you have any recommended science experiments using inexpensive materials? Did you find these ones useful? Let us know what you think.