This small group activity is designed to help upper division undergraduate students visualize various spherical harmonics.

Students draw a particular spherical harmonic's magnitude and phase at different locations on the surface of a balloon, which represents the domain of the spherical harmonic.

The entire class wrap-up discussion includes group presentations of each spherical harmonic, allowing students to gain a visual understanding of the roles of $\ell$ and $m$ in the spherical harmonics.