Colours Animals See

Age Group: 9-12 years

Duration: 30 minutes

Biomimicry Connection:

The ability to see is very important for our functioning. While an owl can teach us something about night vision, a dragonfly is an expert for seeing colors. Understanding how various animals see is useful for innovations. Inspired by the excellent sight of birds of prey and insects, scientists are developing better cameras and visual aids. 

Activity Details:

Tools and Materials

• Activity cards (cut out from the attached worksheet)
• UV marker and UV lamp/battery
• Projection equipment, internet access

Preparation

• Print out the worksheets and cut out a set of cards for each group
• Draw a spider web on the board with a UV marker
• Projector and internet
• Access to the movie - here.
• Arrange tables together for group work ork 

Description

1. Motivate pupils with some starter questions: are there animals that can see better than humans? Worse than humans? Give examples. What could be the reason? (The composition of the eye is different between animals, corresponding to the life needs of each animal, for example the environment in which animals usually move, their strategies to find food and to protect themselves from predators, etc. This is the result of evolution).
2. Divide the class into groups, and hand out the cards with instructions. Ask pupils, in pairs of groups, to match up the text (characteristic of sight of an animal) with the name of the animal.
3. Play the video (you can turn on automatic subtitles in different languages) and instruct the pupils to watch the video carefully to find out most of the correct answers.
4. To evaluate, ask for the correct ordering of the cards, adding further information or explanations if necessary. Ask pupils for their own observations or knowledge (dogs, cats, parrots, horses, lions, etc.).
5. Summarise what we have learned about the eyesight of different animals and draw attention to the ability of birds to see ultraviolet rays that humans cannot see, and explain how this is related to the spider web (some species of spiders are able to incorporate fibres that contain a material capable of reflecting ultraviolet rays into their webs, allowing birds to see and avoid such webs and thus not destroy them).
6. Demonstrate how a bird sees a spider’s web by firstly drawing a ‘spider’s web’ on a whiteboard using the UV pen. Then, use the UV light to reveal the web.

Extensions

Pupils are given UV torches in groups and search in a defined area of the school for marks/words previously drawn/written by the teacher with a UV marker (e.g. the names of natural objects, whose first letters form a riddle, etc.).

Additional information

Read how spiders warn birds to stay away from their webs (read here).

Learn how scientists have been inspired by spiders to create 'bird friendly' glass (read here).