Do and Learn Science….

Optical Illusion

The main objective of science teaching is to impart training in scientific methods and scientific attitude to children. Children easily understand the scientific concepts when they actually “do” with their hands. “Doing” involves both hands and the brain. When children “do” science with their hands, they can transfer the learning experience of one situation to new learning situations. 

Doing and Learning science has several advantages.

Children will have a behavioral change and they will be able to solve problems easily.

Children will get firsthand knowledge and they will develop interest in science learning.

Children will develop decision making skills and problem solving techniques.

Children will acquire self-confidence and will become self-reliant.

Children will start developing scientific attitude.

The learning experience will remain in their memory as they are learning science by doing.

Children will slowly develop a feeling that science is something that we have to do but not just learn from text books.

The advantages of doing and learning science are manifold. Let us see how to make children “do” and “learn”  the concept of  Optical Illusion in our regular class rooms.

Optical illusions occur because our brain is trying to interpret what we see and make sense of the world around us. Optical illusions simply trick our brains into seeing things which may or may not be real. The information gathered by the eye is processed by the brain, creating a perception that in reality, does not match with the true image. Perception means the interpretation of what we understand through our eyes. Therefore, to make children understand the concept of optical illusion, we can use of color, light and patterns to create images that can be deceptive or misleading to our brains.

The learning experience will remain in their memory as they are learning science by doing.

Children will slowly develop a feeling that science is something that we have to do but not just learn from text books.

The advantages of doing and learning science are manifold. Let us see how to make children “do” and “learn”  the concept of  Optical Illusion in our regular class rooms.

Optical illusions occur because our brain is trying to interpret what we see and make sense of the world around us. Optical illusions simply trick our brains into seeing things which may or may not be real. The information gathered by the eye is processed by the brain, creating a perception that in reality, does not match with the true image. Perception means the interpretation of what we understand through our eyes. Therefore, to make children understand the concept of optical illusion, we can use of color, light and patterns to create images that can be deceptive or misleading to our brains.

Teacher can devise certain craft ideas and ask children to do them. Children enjoy doing the crafts and will learn the lesson too. Following are some of the craft ideas for children to do…

1  1.  Color wheel spinning toy: Take an old CD and ask children to cut paper and paste it on CD and paint with different colors. Then ask them to spin it using thread. Tell them note down their observation. They will see white color wheel spinning in front of their eyes as they rotate the disk.

2  2. Color Wheel spinning top:  Let the children take the old cd and paste a white paper circle upon it. Paint the sectors of the circle with any two colors say, for example yellow and blue and then spin the disc. They will observe green color disc spinning.

3.Let children paint all the colors of the rainbow as shown above. When they spin, they will observe white color disc spinning as white color is the constituent of other colors.

4.Both the diagrams can be given to children to draw. The first diagram is a flower vase when they see black portion..  Two faces facing each other when they see the white portion. In the second diagram the animal’s legs are tricking our eyes.

5.Children should be encouraged to draw patterns of the above type to understand optical illusion.

6.A thaumatrope is a toy that was popular in the 19th century. A disk with a picture on each side is attached to two pieces of string. When the strings are twirled quickly between the fingers the two pictures appear to blend into one due to the persistence of vision

Teachers should encourage children to do activities for learning science. Children will develop firsthand knowledge of the topic if they do with their hands. As they understand the importance of doing science and they will also understand that science is not just limited to their text books. Over the period of time, they will start searching for science in their daily life.