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Vision, Blindness and Seeing (August 29, 2003, One)

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Program Summary

Take a look. Did you see that? We may not think about it, but images stream through our eyes into our brain every moment of our waking day. But how exactly do our eyes work, anyway? In this hour, Ira discusses the case study of a man who regained his sight after forty years of blindness. The man, blinded at the age of three by a chemical explosion, underwent a successful operation to regain his sight -- but now is having to re-learn the finer points of how to process visual information.

Guests

Dr. Ione Fine, assistant professor of Ophthalmology at the Doheny Eye Institute, Keck School of Medicine, and University of Southern California in Los Angeles, California

Michael D. Oberdorfer, director of Programs in Visual Neuroscience and Low Vision & Blindness Rehabilitation at the National Eye Institute and the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland

Related Links and Resources

Howard Hughes Medical Institute: Seeing, Hearing and Smelling the World
Monell Chemical Senses Center
Neuroscience for Kids: The Senses

For Discussion:

• How does the brain receive sight messages?
• How do our eyes work?
• How do we perceive color?
• What does light have to do with sight?

Activities

Eye spy. In the Eyes of the Beholder from the NYTimes Lesson Plan Archive is a three-day lesson plan extravaganza. It teaches the anatomy and physiology of eyeballs and how they work. Students are led through a dissection of a cow eyeball, although the lesson plan could be tailored to individual classroom needs and the dissection element skipped. Wonderful suggestions for extension activities include investigating how other animal eyes work, researching new technologies to help people see and regain sight, comparing the human eye to the lenses of instruments such as cameras, microscopes and telescopes, and discovering how eyeglasses and contact lenses are made and why they work.

The eyes have it. Participate in a number of visual experiments, from color vision at Color Blindness to a wide variety of fun optical illusions involving light/dark contrasts, color fatigue and continuous line, among others, as well as the science behind them, at Sandlot Science and Neuroscience for Kids.

Eye do. For basic anatomy, function and background information about eyes and sight, check out How Do My Eyes Work? from SOLA. This site has accessible illustrations and thorough descriptions of eye anatomy and function. Basic anatomy, light perception and color vision are all clearly explained at How Stuff Works. DiscoverySchool’s The Eye: Structure and Function is a straightforward lesson in eye comparison and anatomy asking students to research, compare and contrast, and then select an animal eye to report on.

Now you see it. Blinded by Science from Scientific American Frontiers is an interesting story about 24-year old Michelle Geronimo who agreed to be blindfolded and study Braille for 5 days while scientists studied her to see if the change in incoming information had any changes in her brain. Changing Your Mind, the accompanying study guide for the show leads students through learning Braille and then conducting memory tests and touch sensitivity.

Use the search box below to perform a Google search within any of the specifc sites or general domains mentioned in this Activities section.

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