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Explore · Wonder · Discover

How Things Work

Ever wondered how airplanes fly, why popcorn pops or how your heart pumps? Pick a question, then watch it, look inside, try it, solve a challenge and go deeper. Every topic changes for Preschool, Elementary and Middle school.

  1. 1Watch it
  2. 2Look inside
  3. 3Try it
  4. 4Solve a challenge
  5. 5Go deeper

500 topics to explore · showing 49–72

Every topic

#49 Computers & communication How does a camera take a picture? Follow light through a lens to a sensor. Adjust focus and lighting, capture an image, and zoom in to discover its pixels. #50 Computers & communication How does a touchscreen know where you touched? Tap a transparent screen and watch a simplified sensor grid detect the location. Follow that information into a button press, swipe, or drawing. #51 Computers & communication How does the internet send a message? Break a message into packets, route them through a network, and reassemble them. Help packets find another route around a broken connection. #52 Computers & communication How do robots work? Give a robot sensors, motors, and instructions. Help it navigate a maze, avoid obstacles, or sort objects, then improve its behavior. #53 Computers & communication How do video games work? Explore input, game rules, animation, collision detection, and scoring. Change gravity or movement speed in a tiny game and play the result. #54 Computers & communication How does a computer follow instructions? Explore the processor, memory, storage, and input/output devices. Follow a simple instruction through the system and build a short sequence of commands. #55 Computers & communication How does Wi-Fi connect devices? Send simplified radio messages between a device and router. Move devices around a virtual home and investigate how distance and walls affect the connection. #56 Computers & communication How does GPS know where you are? Compare signals from several satellites and watch a receiver calculate its position. Explore how signal timing helps locate a moving character. #57 Computers & communication How does a printer make colorful pictures? Look inside an inkjet printer and build a picture from tiny cyan, magenta, yellow, and black dots. Switch colors on and off to compare results. #58 Computers & communication How do microphones and speakers work? Watch sound vibrations become an electrical signal and turn back into vibrations. Compare quiet, loud, low-pitched, and high-pitched sounds. #59 Buildings & city systems How does clean water reach our taps? Follow water through treatment, storage, and underground pipes. Explore the removal of visible and microscopic contaminants, then connect a neighborhood's water supply. #60 Buildings & city systems How do elevators work? Add passengers and watch the motor, cables, elevator car, and counterweight move together. Deliver people to different floors in a transparent building. #61 Buildings & city systems What happens to water after it goes down the drain? Follow wastewater through sewers, screens, settling tanks, and biological treatment. Operate a model treatment plant and investigate each stage's purpose. #62 Buildings & city systems How do bridges hold so much weight? Compare beam, arch, and suspension bridges. Add virtual traffic, watch simplified force arrows, and strengthen a bridge by changing its supports. #63 Buildings & city systems How do skyscrapers stay standing? Explore foundations, columns, bracing, and structural cores. Build a model tower and compare how different designs respond to weight and wind. #64 Buildings & city systems How do traffic lights manage busy roads? Program signals at an intersection and include pedestrian crossings. Compare how different timings affect queues and help everyone move through safely. #65 Buildings & city systems How does a recycling center sort materials? Send materials along a conveyor and explore magnets, screens, and sorting equipment. Follow selected paper, metal, and plastic items into processing. #66 Buildings & city systems How do construction cranes lift heavy things? Explore the boom, cables, pulleys, and counterweights. Move virtual loads while investigating how their position affects the crane's balance. #67 Buildings & city systems How are tunnels built underground? Look inside a tunnel-boring machine and follow excavation, soil removal, and tunnel lining. Guide construction around underground obstacles in a model city. #68 Buildings & city systems How are roads built? Build a layered model road, compact the surface, and add drainage. Explore how traffic, water, and temperature contribute to wear and potholes. #69 Earth & weather How do clouds form, and why does it rain? Follow a water droplet through evaporation, condensation, rainfall, and its return to rivers or oceans. Change conditions in a simple water-cycle simulation. #70 Earth & weather How do rainbows form? Position sunlight, water droplets, and an observer. Follow light as it bends and reflects, and explore why different colors appear at different angles. #71 Earth & weather How do lightning and thunder happen? Explore a simplified storm cloud and the buildup of electrical charge. Compare when a flash is seen and its thunder is heard at different distances. #72 Earth & weather How do volcanoes erupt? Look beneath a volcano and follow magma, gases, and pressure in a simplified model. Compare different volcano shapes and eruption styles.

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