Main Street School fourth graders – who have been learning in their science classes that animals need different amounts of light to see well – created their own model structures of an eye to demonstrate their understanding.
Through an in-depth study of the Tokay gecko as part of the Amplify Vision and Light unit, the students learned about the structure of the animal’s eye and each part’s specific function. Throughout the unit, they used digital modeling tools and read texts to expand their growing understanding of how light receptor sensitivity affects what an animal sees.
As a culminating activity, the fourth graders worked with partners to create their own models of the structure of an eye and the function of its parts. Equipped with a variety of materials, each group had the freedom to decide how to demonstrate the function of the pupil, lens, optic nerve, light receptors and brain. They were also challenged to explain how vision works for animals with low-sensitivity and high-sensitivity light receptors and what an animal may or may not see in its environment at a particular point in a 24-hour day.
Date Added: 1/9/2023
