← Back to course
Body Lab 3-5 / Week 08 / Monday
1/6
Week 08 · Eyes and Seeing

Monday

Light bounces into your eyes
// How light becomes a picture
⏱ about 15 min

Monday: Light Bounces into Your Eyes

Rocket hides his newest gadget in the closet. He steps inside and shuts the door. "Where did it go?" he calls.

Raven opens the door. Light pours in, and there is the gadget!

"What do you notice?" Raven asks. "What changed when the door opened?"

Nova shines a soft beam on the shelf. "Think about where the light travels," she says.

How we see things

Light comes from a source, like a lamp or the Sun.

The light hits an object, like an apple on the table.

Some of the light bounces off the apple. Bouncing light is called reflected light.

The reflected light travels into your eyes. That is how you see the apple!

In a totally dark closet, there is no light to bounce. So you cannot see.

THE PATH OF LIGHT
  • ?A lamp gives off light.
  • ?The light hits an apple.
  • ?Light bounces off the apple.
  • ?The light enters your eye.
  • ?Your brain makes a picture of the apple.
WHY THIS EXERCISEYou see an object when light reflected from it enters your eye.
LIGHT DETECTIVE
  • Read the question.
  • Tap your answer.
Why can you see a book on your desk?
In a closet with no light at all, can you see a red ball?
Which one is a light source?
StatementTrue or false?
We see objects when reflected light enters our eyes.?
Our eyes send out light beams to see things.?
Light can bounce off objects.?
We can see well in total darkness.?
WHY THIS EXERCISELight travels from a source, bounces off things and enters our eyes.
Light that bounces off an object is called what kind of light?
WHY THIS EXERCISEReflected light is light that has bounced off something.

Make a dark box

You can test this idea with a box and a small hole.

  • A shoebox with a lid
  • A small toy or a bright crayon
  • Tape
Safety first
A grown-up pokes the peephole with a pencil tip. Never use sharp tools yourself.
Never look at the Sun, even through a hole or a tube.
  1. Put the toy inside the box. Put the lid on and tape the edges.
  2. Ask a grown-up to poke a small peephole in one end.
  3. Look through the peephole. What can you see?
  4. Lift one corner of the lid to let light in. Look again.
With the lid on, I saw ____ inside the box.
When light came in, I could ____ the toy.

Bright thinking! Tomorrow we look closely at the front of the eye, where the light goes in.