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  • Spectrum Lab logo
  • Teacher Resources
  • 1. Light
  • 2. Spectra
  • 3. Color
  • 4. Temperature
  • 5. Composition
  • Final Projects
  • Playground

Test your expertise with these final projects

Apply what you know about light, color, and spectra to design a fish tank lighting system; explore exoplanet atmospheres; or analyze artworks as a museum conservator.
Colorful fish and plants in a fish tank

Fish tank

Create and light a saltwater reef aquarium that’s healthy and beautiful.

In this project, you’ll first explore how land plants reflect light. Then you’ll dive deeper by investigating a variety of plants, fish, and coral that live in saltwater aquaria. Lastly, you’ll choose a few to live in your tank how to light the tank so its they thrive.

A planet orbiting a red star

Exoplanets

Explore the atmosphere of planets outside our solar system.

In this project, you’ll explore planets outside our solar system, learning how their spectra transmissions help predict their atmosphere.

A hand holding a paintbrush applies oil paint to a canvas

Museum conservation

Set up a museum display that conveys how spectra are used in art conservation.

In this project, you’ll learn how art conservators use spectrum to guide the process of accurately selecting pigments to restore works of art.

Smithsonian DataLabs is supported by the Smithsonian Institution’s Together We Thrive initiative and funded in part by the Jeff Bezos gift to the National Air and Space Museum.

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Color palette

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Center for Astrophysics: Harvard & Smithsonian logo