Students at East Elementary School are getting to delve into the more mysterious corners of the science curriculum, thanks to an Operation Roundup grant that funds mystery science curriculum membership for hands-on lessons and projects. I’m here.

April Dean, a fourth-grade teacher at East Elementary School, wrote a $1,200 membership grant for the program. This benefits approximately 600 students at the school. Mystery Science is a supplemental science resource featuring engaging grade-based videos and experiments. All lessons are based on questions designed to engage a student’s natural curiosity. Experiments are designed to “grasp” students and encourage them to think outside the box to solve problems.

Our latest lesson challenged students to discover how the eye works and what causes common vision problems. Students used a magnifying lens for the cornea and an index card for the retina. I then had to stand by the classroom window and hold both at just the right distance to view the image.

“The whole room went ‘Wow’ and ‘Ah’ when I saw the clear reflection of the window on the card. Music rang in my science teacher’s ears,” said Dean. “They found that the structure of our eyes can determine some vision problems. If the ‘cornea’ and ‘retina’ are too close or too far apart, the image will be blurry.” “

After learning the basics of eye function, students will create pupil cards for eye models to show how the eye sees light and how the iris dilates the pupil when it gets dark. I showed you how to capture a lot of light.

In addition to the support from Operation Round-Up, the Northbrook Church supported the project by helping purchase the magnifying glasses used to model all 120 fourth graders.

“Thanks to Northbrook’s generosity, each of my students was able to bring home an eye model to show their families after our lesson,” said Dean. Education is teamwork, and we are so grateful for our community and looking forward to more Mystery Science lessons this year.”