What Does a Soccer (Football) Player See?
Description: In this video researchers use eye tracking technology on professional soccer players. The technology is able to track the movements of the participants eyes during different skills and this information is shared with the participants. This technology allows students to see more specifically how information is taken in during sport, and more importantly during life. Students could find patterns in the video or use open source vision tracking software to track their own gaze.
Web Resources: Pilot Dataset Request Form, Tobii Pro Eye Tracking Technology, Eye tracking - Wikipedia, 10 Free Eye Tracking Software Programs [Pros and Cons]
xLabs Eye Gaze Tracking Software
Description: Using this software students can track their gaze using the web camera in a typical laptop. Software like this is used by companies and marketers to determine how humans track information in a program or browse a website. Students can investigate different images and videos and how the brain takes in information for processing and response.
Web Resources: xLabs Chrome Extension, xLabs Gaze Website, 10 Free Eye Tracking Software Programs [Pros and Cons]
Blinking Eyes Send a Morse Code Message
Description: Jeremiah Denton was a naval aviator who was captured and became a POW for eight years in Viet Nam. In 1966 he was forced to take part in a propaganda video. During the filming he pretended to be bothered by the lights but was in fact blinking out the word torture in Morse code. This confirmed for the first time that captured servicemen were indeed being tortured. Mr. Denton went on to serve as a U.S. Senator from the state of Alabama. This secret message could be used as a starting point for a unit on waves and information. Students could create and send messages of their own, hopefully under much more enjoyable conditions.
Web Resources: Blinking Eyes Send a Morse Code Message - Awesome Stories, Jeremiah Denton - Wikipedia
Mysterious Glowing Ball
Description: The mysterious glowing ball contains a red, green, and blue LED giving the ball a purple appearance. When the ball is stationary your brain perceives them all as one color. When the ball is spinning your brain can perceive individual LEDs turning on and off. The persistence of vision allows technology like movies possible and is a wonderful phenomenon to use in a unit on vision and light.
Web Resource: Persistence of vision - Wikipedia
The Shadow Illusion
Description: Derek Muller from Veritasium uses the shadow illusion to show that the size and shape of a pinhole does not affect the image projected. Most of the participants believe they are looking at the shape of the hole rather than the shape of the Sun projected on the wall. This could be an excellent phenomenon to start a unit on light or vision.
Web Resource: Pinhole camera - Wikipedia
Shrew Caravan
Description: Shrews spend most of their lives underground and therefore have very poor eyesight. They rely primarily on their highly developed senses of smell and hearing. When a mother shrew wants to move all of her offspring from one location to another (particularly above ground) each shrew will hold onto the shrew in front forming a long caravan. This could be used as a phenomenon to introduce animal behaviors, especially those of a parent to ensure the safety of their offspring.
Web Resource: Common Shrew - Wikipedia
Why is Space Black?
Description: This phenomenon can be used in elementary to explain darkness and illumination. Even though light travels between the Sun and the Earth space appears black because there is nothing (e.g. gas, dust, etc.) for the light to reflect off of. This can also be used as a much deeper phenomenon. Since space is filled with billions and billions of stars and each of them give off light why isn't space completely light? The answer lies in the expansion of the Universe.
Web Resource: Ask Ethan: Why does space appear black?
Vantablack - The Darkest Material on Earth
Description: Vantablack is an synthetic material created by Surrey Nanosystems. It consists of a series of carbon nanotubes that are aligned vertically. It absorbs nearly 100% of the light that enters the tube giving. Since nearly all of the light is absorbed by the material it appears black. In the video below a bronze statue is covered in Vantablack and it disappears from view. This phenomenon can be used to illustrate the idea of illumination. Even though a light source is present none of the light reflects back to the viewer and so all that remains is darkness.
Web Resources: Vantablack | Surrey NanoSystems , Vantablack - Wikipedia
