Rochford County Primary School Science Week 2007

[Click these links for: Competition Entries and Competition Feedback]

When Sue Morris, a teacher at Rochford County Primary School invited me along to talk about eyes during the school’s science week. I decided to show her young students that with sight, there is more than meets the eye!

The kids were great - they were all so enthusiastic. I demonstrated how the eye works and how I work as an optometrist to examine the health inside the eye: I was able to project photographs taken with my retinal camera to show them why we all have a blind spot in our vision.

My final year research project was an investigation of visual illusions so it has always been a fascination to me. I decided to bring along a selection of visual illusions, which they certainly enjoyed! Current computer technology and video projection has made demonstration of such illusions far more accessible.

Even the teachers got excited! One illusion relies on staring at a rotating spiral for twenty seconds – the subsequent after effect generates visual distortion. After the twenty seconds I got the kids to stare at each other’s faces – the sound of the entire class screaming in unison as they watched their friend’s faces “pulsating” was deafening!

To make it more interesting for all of us I set them a competition - to create a project about eyes or visual illusions - with book tokens as prizes. Take a look at some of the entries and feedback for the competition...the results are a closely guarded secret and will be announced very soon!