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Unit Plan
Core Knowledge Foundation

The Human Body—Systems and Senses Tell It Again!™ Read-Aloud Anthology

For Teachers 3rd Standards
Nine lessons over three weeks explore the human body through read-alouds. Third graders listen to and discuss a reading followed by extension activities, including word work and comprehension practice. Learners draft a narrative essay.
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Activity
Exploratorium

Pupil

For Teachers 4th - 7th
Give pupils a magnifier, a mirror, and a flashlight so that they can examine their own pupils. As they shine a light on their eyes, the light is shone on how this structure dilates and contracts to control how much is allowed into the...
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Activity
Exploratorium

Jacques Cousteau in Seashells

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Visionaries create images out of dots to demonstrate the eye-brain connection. Through this activity, they learn that the brain interprets data collected by the eye into recognizable information. Search online for "Jacques Cousteau in...
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Activity
Exploratorium

Blind Spot

For Teachers 6th - 8th
A small card with a dot and an X is held at arm's length and used to show youngsters where their blind spot is. This illuminating little activity is a compact addition to your lesson on the structure of the eye as it explains the part of...
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Activity
Exploratorium

Afterimage

For Teachers 4th - 8th
To illuminate how afterimage occurs, create a star, square, or other geometric-shaped light for learners to look at for 30 seconds. Then, have them explain what they see as they shift their focus to a blank wall. A full explanation of...
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Worksheet
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Rice University

Characteristics of the Sun

For Students 5th - 8th Standards
After reading about how the sun gets its energy, and about the layers and features of the sun's atmosphere, heliologists complete a comprehension worksheet. On it, they label features on a diagram of the sun and match terms from the...
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Worksheet
Curated OER

El cuerpo/ The Body

For Students Pre-K - 1st
Donde es la nariz? Distribute a copy of this picture to all of your young Spanish learners to introduce the Spanish words for eyes, nose, and mouth. They cut and paste the images over the words where they belong. Then, to finish, they...
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Lesson Plan
K20 LEARN

Windows To The Soul: A Creative Writing Project

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
The eyes have it in a project that combines art with creative writing. Class members list three adjectives or characteristics of a person they admire. Then draw a picture of a pair of eyes that they feel reflects these characteristics....
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Lesson Plan
Science Friday

Pinhole Viewer

For Students 6th - 8th Standards
Take a peep into optics. Pupils watch a video about a large Polaroid camera before building pinhole viewers. The scholars then create different types of viewers and compare them to determine which provides the best image.
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Lesson Plan
Serendip

How Eyes Evolved – Analyzing the Evidence

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
Octopodes existed for hundreds of thousands of years before humans, yet our eyes share many similarities. Scholars analyze the evidence to determine if the evolution of eyes best fits a homology or analogy model. They discuss the issue...
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Interactive
Magic of Physics

Eyes and Sight

For Students 6th - 12th Standards
A short interactive allows scholars to view a model of the anatomy of an eye that provides a description of how each part works and models how the parts function together. A short quiz on both the anatomy and the functions allows pupils...
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Interactive
Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Explore Your Inner Animals

For Students 6th - 12th Standards
Human bodies prove evolution thanks to our genes, bones, and more. Learning about specific body parts and how they evolved from other species helps individuals better understand the transition species that helped us become who we are today.
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Interactive
CK-12 Foundation

Contact Lens

For Students 6th - 12th Standards
How do contact lenses work? The simulation allows young scientists to explore focal length and lens type to see how and why contact lenses work. Pupils control the focal length for an eye and a lens, the type of lens, and the distance...
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Lesson Plan
LABScI

Vision Lab: The Eye

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Our bodies have some amazing capabilities, but there are some limitations. Explore the limitations of the human eye through the eighth lab activity in a series of 12 biology lessons. Individuals measure their own peripheral vision and...
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Lesson Plan
Rochester Institute of Technology

Artificial Eye

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
Scientists in California developed a bionic eye that allows blind people to see edges of objects in black and white and costs $145,000. In the activity, groups of scholars discuss bioengineering, focusing on the human eye. They then...
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PPT
Urbana School District

Optics

For Teachers 11th - Higher Ed
Don't worry, optics is a light topic! The presentation covers reflection, refraction, fiber optics, mirages, prisms, rainbows, dispersion, mirrors, lenses, telescopes, diffraction, the human eye, and much, much more. Presentation is the...
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Lesson Plan
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Nemours KidsHealth

Vision

For Teachers 6th - 8th Standards
From the iris and retina to glasses and contact lenses, learners will be excited to see what activities are in store for them as they learn about the complex organ of the human eye.
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Activity
Exploratorium

Seeing Your Blind Spot

For Teachers 4th - 8th
Viewers use a small, dimmed flashlight to identify the blind spot for both the right and left eye. It is a simple activity to incorporate into your activities during a lesson on vision and the structure and function of the eyeball.
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Activity
Exploratorium

Seeing Your Retina

For Teachers 4th - 8th
Using a dimmed flashlight, life science learners can see the network of blood vessels that line the back of their eye. Darken the room and let them try this activity as part of your unit on the eyeball. Also consider some of the other...
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Activity
Exploratorium

Cheshire Cat

For Teachers 5th - 8th
Divide your field of vision in two and see what happens when your two eyes behold two different scenes! This is a way to demonstrate to body-systems buffs how the two eyes usually blend pictures to create a three-dimensional view. This...
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Activity
Exploratorium

Bird in the Cage

For Teachers 5th - 9th
When your life science class is learning about the eye and how it works, you can add this activity as a demonstration of how the retina holds an afterimage. After staring at a red, green, or blue bird shape, pupils glance at a cage and...
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Activity
Exploratorium

Peripheral Vision

For Teachers 4th - 6th
Life science learners discover the range of peripheral vision. They compare the angles at which they can detect motion, colors, and detailed shapes. 
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Activity
Exploratorium

Whirling Watcher

For Teachers 4th - 7th
Pupils put together their own stroboscopes so that they can observe how cyclically moving images appear to merge into a singular object. This, and several other activities published by the same source, illuminate the way the brain...
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Activity
Exploratorium

Far Out Corners

For Teachers 4th - 6th
Construct a three-dimensional optical illusion when your class is exploring vision and how the eye and brain work together. Three concave corners are mounted inside of a black box, but as a light is shined upon them, they appear to be...