Today the 2nd and 3rd graders started the day with an eye anatomy pre-assessment. Most students are starting with very little knowledge of eye anatomy. They then learned some eye anatomy basics and even created a giant cross-cut eye diagram with their bodies! (pictured left) Their diagram processed light (represented by classmates) as it went through the steps and eventually ended at the eye. The vocabulary words we are working on are cornea, iris, pupil, ciliary muscles, lens, retina, rods/cones, optic nerve, and sclera.

In the afternoon, students learned about how optical illusions trick the brain by confusing the patterns the brain is used to processing. The students also created two optical illusions of their own. Examples can be seen in the videos at the bottom of this post.