Scientist in the School
Today I was fortunate enough to be able to volunteer again at Hadley's school for scientist in the school. I feel so lucky. Brian watched Easton while he worked from home.
This year was all about the senses. There were a number of parent volunteers and my centre was the sight centre. I was the teacher for this centre after a 3 minute info session. I was handed a write up to reference and a box of things to explore.
The first thing we did was to put on black out glasses, then take them off, look in a mirror and watch our pupils get smaller. There was a small explanation that I was supposed to read to the kids about our eyes being like cameras taking many photos and the size of their pupils change with the amount of light.
The next activity was to have each kid close their eyes while I handed them an item to guess. Some guessed right. The next part of this was to do it again with a second item and ask them to guess the colour. Without eyes, they couldn't do this.
There were a few optical illusions that we discussed. A black circle with large White circles around it, and a black circle with small black circles around it. We proved that the centre circle in black for both was the same size even though it appeared to be different. There was a reflective pig that when you stand close vs far, it would appear in different spaces.
We spent some time making 3D glasses and looking at 3D images in a book. Then we explored binoculars, large and small glasses, kaleidoscopes, etc.
Each centre had a 20 minute time slot with 4 kids in each group. So I taught my section 4 times.
The day went by quickly, it was fun, and I know Hadley had a great time.
What a privilege to have this program at her school. The SCC (School Community Council) funded this and I think it was well worth the funds.