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Learner Centered Activity: Do You See What I See?
By Priscilla Shumway

Sample Standard: Describe the anatomy and localized function of given brain areas

 

Grade Level: 6-8

 

Purpose: To introduce a lesson on retinal function

 

Time: 15-20 minutes

 

Group Size: Any. Partner students together

 

Materials: White chart paper, magnifying glasses, colored pencils

 

Process:

  1. Provide students with magnifying glasses. Each student in the partnership needs to be able to experience this activity.
  2. Tape a clean sheet of chart paper on a wall next to a window.
  3. Have the students hold the magnifying glass close to the white paper and look through it to see outside the window and on the chart paper. Whatever is outside the window will appear upside down on the paper.
  4. Have the students draw what they see on the paper.
  5. Bring the whole group back together and have them guess why this happens.
  6. This replicates the lens of our eye which is convex. This turns the image upside down on the retina and causes the brain to flip it right side up so that we can make sense of what we are seeing.

 

Adaptation for Below-Level or ELL students: Provide the students with a diagram of the eye and brain to help explain the process of retinal imaging.

 

Submitted by Priscilla Shumway, a former teacher and training consultant with The Bob Pike Group.
 
 

I’m Drawn to You

 

Sample Standard: Understanding that a magnet attracts only iron and certain other metals.

 

Grade Level: 4

 

Purpose: To revisit after students have studied the basic principles of magnetism.

 

Time: 10-15 minutes

 

Group Size: Groups of 4-5 students

 

Materials: Chart paper, markers, magnets, small prizes

 

Process:

1.  Divide the class into small groups of 4-5 students. Give them 2 minutes to make a list of as many objects in the classroom that they can.

2.  At the end of the 2 minutes, the groups each make a large two-column chart labeled Magnetic and Non Magnetic.

3.  They must decide which column each object from their list goes into and draw a picture of it there.

4.  At the end of the time specified (10-12 minutes), the team with the most correctly placed pictures is the winner.

5.  Magnets may be used to test different objects.

6.  Small prizes may be awarded to the winners.

 

Adaptations for higher level students:

Have students determine the placement of the objects in the columns without being able to test the objects with a magnet.

 

This activity was submitted by Adrianne Roggenbuck, a former teacher who is currently a training consultant with The Bob Pike Group.


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