Do You See What I See?
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March 2015 Do you see what I see? Light, sight, and natural selection Lesson 2: How does biology affect perception? I. Overview Students begin their investigations of individual difference in perception beginning with a color- blindness test and reading of an interview with a person with colorblindness. In order to further understand how the structures of the eye affect perception, students dissect a cow eye and make connections between the parts and their functions in contributing to sight. Students will use this evidence in Lesson 5 to revise their model of perception. Connection to the driving question In the first lesson, students were introduced to the idea that individuals perceive color differently, and they built a model of color perception. In this lesson, they explore the mammalian eye and colorblindness to learn how biological factors and genetics can affect color perception, knowledge which they will use in subsequent lessons to revise their model. II. Standards National Science Education Standards Science as inquiry. Identify questions and concepts that guide scientific investigation (9-12 A: 1/1). The Behavior of Organisms. …In sense organs, specialized cells detect light, sound, and specific chemicals and enable animals to monitor what is going on in the world around them (9-12 C: 6/1). Benchmarks Something can be "seen" when light waves emitted or reflected by it enter the eye—just as something can be "heard" when sound waves from it enter the ear. 4F/M2 III. Learning Objectives Learning Objective Assessment Criteria Location in Lesson Know the causes for Students provide an explanation including Colorblindness Test colorblindness genetics and genetic mutation Activity, “Interview with a Colorblind Person” Reading 1 March 2015 Understand the structures and Students correctly identify structures “The Biology of How functions of the parts of the within the eye and describe how the We See” Reading, mammalian eye physical characteristics of the structure “Eye Construction contribute to its function in enabling sight Game” Know the cells involved in color Students correctly differentiate the “The Biology of How perception functions of rods and cones and can We See” Reading describe how cone(s) are involved in colorblindness Understand the role of the brain Students are able to distinguish the eye as “The Biology of How in color perception a sensory organ and the brain as an We See” Reading, information processing organ which “sees” “Interview with a Colorblind Person” Acquire appropriate laboratory Students demonstrate care and attention Eye Dissection Activity skills to proper safety procedures during eye dissection Practice collecting evidence Students collect and describe several Throughout lesson pieces of evidence related to the perception of color IV. Adaptations/Accommodations If, for whatever reason, it is not possible to do the eye dissection, a digital activity called the Eye Construction Game can be used instead. It is available on the Project NEURON website at http://neuron.illinois.edu/games/eye-construction-game. Alternatively, the Eye Construction Game can also be used as an assessment tool. If a student is not comfortable with the dissection, there are also a series of videos available (as a YouTube playlist) of a detailed, narrated eye dissection of a fresh and preserved cow eye. This can be found on the Project NEURON website at http://neuron.illinois.edu/videos/eye-dissection-videos. Safety Students need to wear appropriate eye goggles and gloves when handling eyes for dissections. Caution students about the proper use of sharp instruments like scalpels and scissors. Dispose of dissected eyes properly. V. Timeframe for lesson Opening of Lesson Revisit student models from Lesson 1 – 2 minutes Main part of lesson Activity 1: Colorblindness test – 5 minutes Activity 2: Pair and share reading – 10 minutes Activity 3: Eye dissection – 30 minutes 2 March 2015 Conclusion of Lesson Wrap-Up Discussion – 10 minutes VI. Advance prep and materials Activity 1: Colorblindness Test Materials Use Ishihara color test plates. If possible, have enough plates (or copies of the plates) to hand out to students so that they can look at the images. o All 38 of the Ishihara Plates can be found online at the address listed here. (Note: All color vision plates are copyrighted but can be used under the Fair Use Policy for education). However, the scanned (and reprinted) colors will not be nearly as accurate as the official Ishihara plates: http://www.color-blindness.com/2012/10/22/ishiharas- test-for-colour-deficiency38-plates-edition/ o Official Ishihara printed plates can be found on Amazon.com, although they can cost between $100 and $200 per set. Preparation Order or print the Ishihara images ahead of time, if necessary. Print copies of “Interview of a Colorblind Person” Activity 2: Pair and Share Reading Materials “Interview of a Colorblind Person” (U1_L2_Reading_ColorblindInterview.docx) or the extended version (U1_L2_Reading_ColorblindInterview_Extended.docx) “The Biology of How We See” (U1_L2_Reading_BiologyOfHowWeSee.docx) Preparation Print enough copies of the readings for each pair of students in the class. Activity 3: Eye Dissection Materials For the activity, each student group will need: One cow eye per group Gloves Safety goggles Lab aprons (optional) Dissection materials including: scalpels, forceps, blunt probes, and scissors Exploratorium dissection manuals 3 March 2015 Preparation Print student dissection manuals from the Exploratorium found at http://exploratorium.info/learning_studio/cow_eye/doit.html. Order eyes in advance. One supplier of preserved sheep and/or cow eyes is Carolina Biological Supply: http://www.carolina.com/. Local butcher shops may also be able to supply fresh eyes if notified ahead of time. Carolina Comparative Mammalian Eye Dissection Kit can be ordered from: http://www.carolina.com/product/221492.do Homework and Assessments Homework can include the Language and color (BBC Horizon) video clip in Lesson 3 Assessments include evidence from student discussions and student artifacts (see Assessment section in Implementation) VII. Resources and references Resources The materials for this lesson can be downloaded for free from the Project NEURON website: http://neuron.illinois.edu/do-you-see-what-i-see/lesson-2 The National Eye Institute (NEI) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), https://nei.nih.gov/ Colour Blind Awareness website. http://www.colourblindawareness.org/ Colblindor website. http://www.color-blindness.com/ We Are Colorblind website. http://wearecolorblind.com/ References “The Biology of How We See” Reading “Drawing of the Eye” by the National Institutes of Health – National Eye Institute. Retrieved from https://www.flickr.com/photos/nationaleyeinstitute/7544457228. Public Domain. Eye Dissection Cow’s Eye Dissection. Exploratorium. http://exploratorium.info/learning_studio/cow_eye/doit.html Vision and Art: The Biology of Seeing Gregory, R.L. (1997) Eye and Brain: the psychology of seeing (5th ed.). Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press 4 March 2015 VIII. Lesson Implementation Opening Begin the lesson by referring to students’ models of perception that they developed in the previous lesson, especially any parts of their models that referred to biological structures like eyes. Remind them that they will be investigating the human eye and how it affects color perception. If students read “Interview with a Colorblind Person” for homework, students can share their thoughts as an opening to the colorblind test. Otherwise, the reading can be integrated into the colorblind test activity. Main Part of Lesson Activity 1: Colorblindness Test Show the entire class the Ishihara color test plates one at a time, or pass them around for closer inspection. It is important to realize that individual differences and students who have color-blindness may be identified so take care throughout this activity. Also mention that only an eye doctor or physician (ophthalmologist or optometrist) can accurately diagnose color-blindness. The official Ishihara plates come with a description of each plate, including the number(s) that will be seen by a person with normal color vision and/or different types of color-blindness. Some plates are used as a control (can be seen by anyone), and some plates have numbers that can ONLY be seen by individuals with normal color vision or color-blindness. Ask students: What do you see when you look at the plates? o Students may state numbers, but also encourage them to examine the dots, which are made of varying hues of color. What causes people to see something different? o Because the hues of the dots in the numbers are slightly different than the background dots, some people may not be able to distinguish the colors, or they may distinguish hues that people with normal color vision cannot see. What about their eye might be different? How do you think the daily life experiences of people with color-blindness would be different from those of people with normal color perception? This last two questions can be used to transition into the Pair and Share Reading Activity. If students are not expected to know the answer, but ask them to keep their questions in mind as the investigation continues. Activity 2: Pair and Share Reading This last question can be used to transition into the readings “Interview with a Colorblind Person” (U1_L2_Reading_ColorblindInterview.docx) and “The Biology of How We See” 5 March 2015 (U1_L2_Reading_BiologyOfHowWeSee.docx).