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Genetics & Biodiversity Open House
A free afternoon event for grade 6-12 teachers, October 17
 Join us at COSI on Wednesday, October 17, from 3pm – 5pm for our free Open House. Explore COSI, tour Gregor Mendel: Planting the Seeds of Genetics, speak with COSI faculty about classroom activities, see a film on the Extreme Screen, and take home exciting lessons to use with your students. Admission is free!
Learn more. |
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The Intersection of Faith & Evolution:
A Civil Dialogue
November 14, 2007, 7:30pm - 9pm, Free to the public*
Can science support religious views? Join us for a panel discussion about this engaging topic at COSI Columbus with Dr. Francis Collins, Director of the National Human Genome Research Institute, and author of "The Language of God."
* The program is free, but pre-registration is required.
Please call 614.228.2674. |
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Spend the night at COSI!
Take an Overnight Field Trip and explore all COSI has to offer
COSI's Overnight Field Trips include our exhibition areas, live shows, an Extreme Screen film, and special discovery-based workshops. It's the ultimate way for your group of grade 3-6 students to focus on science standards. Offered February 14, 28, and March 13, 2008. Learn more. |
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Scavenger Hunts
Add fun to your COSI field trip!
 Have your field trip support academic content standards with a COSI Scavenger Hunt. Select ideas you'd like to focus on, distribute the activities to your students and chaperones, and plan your day at COSI around a scientific theme.
Download COSI Scavenger Hunts. |
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| Classroom Activity for Grades 5-9 |
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Purple Bananas and Blue Tangerines
Fall is a great time to explore color, especially the way that your brain processes color.
Materials
Plastic spoons (one per student); red, yellow, and blue-colored dry-erase markers; white wall, screen, or large sheet of poster paper.
Instructions
1. Ask students what happens when someone takes a picture of you with a camera and flash. The flash momentarily blinds you with white light. When you blink, you see a black blob wherever you look! The black blob is an "afterimage" of the white flash of light. To find out what they know about how the eye sees color, ask students what they know about afterimages and why they think this happens.
2. Have each student draw a simple, bold picture on the bowl of a spoon, using a brightly colored dry-erase marker. Use only one color. A red apple, a gold fish, or a blue house, are examples that work well. Make sure the figures are filled with color - not just outlines.
3. To create afterimages, have students hold their spoon at arm's length and stare at the figure for 30 seconds. Tell them to quickly blink their eyes, look at a white wall or a piece of white paper, and describe the afterimages they see. Have students repeat this investigation to insure that everyone is able to see an afterimage. Ask students, what color is the afterimage they see? Is it the same color as the picture on the spoon?
Further Exploration
Can you figure out complimentary afterimage colors? Have students trade spoons and perform the activity with different color images. Or, have students draw another colorful image on the other side of their spoon.
Tell students that when they look at the white surface, all wavelengths of color are reflected to your eye. If the cones absorbing red light are fatigued from staring at a red image, the cones that detect blue and green can absorb more light than the cones that detect red. The result is a green afterimage. Can you figure out what the afterimage colors associated with blue and green are?
When you stare at a primary color such as red, the cones that detect red absorb visual light that causes a chemical change to take place. This process, also known as "bleaching", causes the cones to absorb light less well.
What’s Going On?
Why is the afterimage color different from the picture? When you stared at your picture, your eyes focused on only one color. The color receptors in the eye are called "cones" and they are responsible for absorbing color.
There are three types of cones that detect color. One type detects red, another green, and the third blue. There are six million cones in each eye! When the cones are saturated and overloaded, they become fatigued and their response to light is momentarily weakened. While the saturated cones recover, the unused cones that produce other colors produce a complimentary color that we see as the afterimage.
Ask students to figure out how they might "see" purple bananas and blue tangerines.
Relevant Ohio Science Content Standards
Physical Sciences 5.5, 9.18 |
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| October 17, 2007 |
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Website of the Month
This month's web pick is
Best of the Web for Teachers, a super-size site loaded with lesson plans, games, and printable worksheets. |
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Preschool Workshop
A Bob the Builder workshop just for early childhood educators - October 17, 24, November 8. Learn more. |
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Grade Level Days
Join us for an upcoming
Grade Level Day at COSI!
PreK & K: 1/16
1st: 11/7, 1/23
2nd: 11/14, 1/30
3rd: 11/28, 2/6
4th: 12/5, 1/9, 2/13, 4/9
5th: 10/18, 2/20
6th: 10/24, 2/27
7th: 10/24, 2/27
8th: 10/19, 3/5
9th: 10/17, 3/12
10th: 10/17, 3/12
11th: 12/12, 4/2
12th: 12/12, 4/2 |
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Electronic Education
Slots are available for Surgical Suite: Total Knee Replacement and Autopsy. Learn more. |
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Quick Poll |
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| Last Month's Quick Poll
In September, we asked you to name the toughest topic in the Ohio science standards to teach. The toughest by a landslide: Earth & Space Sciences.
The complete results:
Earth & Space Sciences - 31%
Life Sciences - 19%
Physical Sciences - 19%
Scientific Inquiry - 13%
Sci. Ways of Knowing - 13%
Science & Technology - 6%
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Gregor Mendel Exhibition
October 13 - January 6
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Dinosaurs Alive! 3D
Showing through Dec. 31st
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