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Light goes into your eye through a little black hole in the middle: the pupil. The coloured ring around it is the iris.

The iris makes the pupil smaller in bright light and bigger in dim light.

At the front of the eye is a clear dome called the cornea. Inside is the lens. Together they bend the light to make a sharp picture at the back of the eye.

The back of the eye is the retina. Special cells there turn light into messages. The messages go along the optic nerve to your brain, and your brain makes the pictures you see.

Experiment: Watch the pupil change

1. Sit facing your partner. Look at the black pupil in the middle of their eye. Draw how big it is.
2. Your partner covers both eyes with their hands and counts slowly to 20.
3. Your partner takes their hands away and looks at you. Watch the pupil closely straight away!
4. What happens to the pupil in the first few seconds? Draw it again.
5. Swap jobs and try it again.

	Draw the pupil
Before	Guess: big or small?
Just after the hands come away	Guess: big or small?
A little later	Guess: big or small?

Questions

1. Draw an eye. Colour the iris and draw the black pupil in the middle.

   🍎

2. In bright light my pupil gets…

   bigger / smaller

3. What carries the messages from the eye to the brain?

4. What did you see in the pupil experiment?

Sources for every fact on this sheet: echoesof.science/school/eyes/sources/

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