Fourth-grade students at Skyline Elementary recently dove into the fascinating world of animal senses, focusing specifically on the role of vision in survival. As part of their Vision and Light science unit, these young scientists explored how different animals view the world through their eyes, focusing on how varying light sensitivity impacts their vision.
These fourth-graders didn’t just learn from textbooks, though. They got hands-on as they designed and built models to demonstrate how animals with different types of light receptors see in varying light conditions. This project allowed them to visualize and understand the complex process of sight. Throughout the lesson, students aimed to develop a model to describe how light reflecting off objects and entering the eyes allows animals to see, and then use the model to explain how animals receive different types of information through their senses.
Fourth grader Cullen Sims shared his experience, saying, “At first it was confusing on how to get started or what to do in our groups, but once we looked at all our resources and materials it became clear how to create our models of the eyes in our groups. The project was really fun because we got to show what we know and learned in the unit with a hands-on activity!”
By creating models and working collaboratively, the students gained a deeper understanding of animal vision and the crucial role it plays in survival. It’s clear that these fourth graders are seeing the world, and science, in a whole new light.