Activity: Produce images like the those that develop in the human eye and in a camera

Category: Optics / Light

Target Group: 5 to 6 year old children in kindergarten

Aims: Children learn how light can create images and how these are influenced by lenses. 

Where? a group-area that  can be blacked out

How long? Approx. 45 minutes

What? Experiment concerning the topic „Light and Seeing“

Preparation:

Material:

Bulb vase, Kleenex, magnifying glass, torch, play dough, scissors, Scotch tape

Steps:

Situation / Problem:

What do we need in order to see an object or catch it with a camera? In a blacked out room the children experiment with a torch to find out when an object or a person becomes visible. Who can see: the child who holds the torch or the child who the spotlight is fixed on?

Exploring-discovering Phase:

The children build a model of the human eye by using a bulb vase, some Kleenex, a magnifying glass and play dough.

They cut a figure out of cardboard paper and put it in front of before the magnifying glass. The room is blacked out. The figure is lit up with the torch. The children realize that the projected picture is upside down and blurred. They turn the figure upside down and watch what happens. They try to get a sharper picture by moving the magnifying glass. They compare it with the lens of a reflex camera.

Scientific Explanation:

The magnifying glass collects the light coming from the torch, bundles the rays and creates an image on the Kleenex that has been fixed on a round vase. This image is similar to the one that is created on the retina over the rounded eyeball when light reaches the pupil/lens. The image appears smaller and is upside down. Nerve cells and the human brain re-interpret the upside down picture.

Attention: -

Source: 101 spannende Experimente