Eyes Lesson Plan: How Do We See?

Grade Levels: 3-5, 6-8, 9-12

In this lesson plan, which is adaptable for grades 4-12, students use BrainPOP resources to explore how the human eye functions. Students will watch a brief movie on the eye and complete a set of graphic organizers identifying the parts of the human eye and their functions. Students will then complete a simple research project on the eye structure abnormalities that cause nearsightedness and farsightedness.

Lesson Plan Common Core State Standards Alignments

Students will:

  1. Identify the parts of the human eye and their functions.
  2. Explain what ocular dominance is and identify which eye is their own dominant eye.
  3. Research the eye structure abnormalities that cause nearsightedness and farsightedness.

Materials:

Vocabulary:

reflect, cornea, focus, pupil, iris, lens, retina, rods and cons, photon

Preparation:

Make two-sided photocopies of the Worksheet and Graphic Organizer. Be sure to preview the Eyes movie and plan how you want to adapt it for your students' needs.

Lesson Procedure:

  1. Build student interest and background knowledge by showing the Related Reading feature. Talk about ocular dominance and allow students to conduct the simple experiment to see whether they are left or right eye dominant.
  2. Tell students they will learn many more fascinating facts about the human eye as you play the Eyes movie.
  3. Pass out the Worksheet and Graphic Organizer pages that you photocopied back to back.
  4. Have students work collaboratively to fill out the graphic organizer. Play the movie through a second time with the closed captioning on and allow students to make corrections to the graphic organizer or add to it.
  5. Ask students to flip their papers over and complete the bottom part of the worksheet page, in which they research near-sightedness to analyze how imperfections in the structure of the eye cause the condition. Students may use the internet, textbooks, or other resources to determine this information. When they are finished, they can complete the top part of the worksheet page ("Label It").
  6. Assess student learning by having them take the Quiz.

Related:

    Filed as:  3-5, 6-8, 9-12, CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.11-12.1, CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.11-12.7, CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.3.1, CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.3.7, CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.4.1, CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.4.7, CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.5.1