We're back, baby! Thank you for your understanding as I took a hiatus from posting weekly updates during the busiest of the GATE testing referral season. 

This week we started our last unit of the year, a study of the human eye! In order to understand how to eye sees, the 3rd graders first have to get a grasp on how light works, so that concept was introduced today with some videos, drawings, and discussions. Some big takeaways from today are that light is emitted from natural and unnatural sources, light comes from energy packets called photons, photons travel in a straight line in wavy patterns, we can see some of these wavelengths called visible light, and different materials absorb and reflect different wavelengths, which our eyes translate to colors.

In the afternoon, each student made a diy pinhole camera (camera obscura) to demonstrate that light travels in a straight line, thus making the image projected on the pinhole appear upside down. Here is a great video that demonstrates why this happens. Over the next few weeks, the 3rd graders will learn eye anatomy, compare cameras to eyes, and have the option to dissect a cow eyeball!