Our Limerick trip (5th class)
(Mr.Murray’s 5th Class)
We left the school at 7:30am. We arrived at Mary Immaculate College Limerick at 9:30am. When we got in, we all got wristbands, then we started to set up our project called Can we improve our ability to see in the dark.
Our project is about whether we can improve our ability to see in the dark. We chose this project because we are interested in how animals hunt at night. We are also interested in night vision goggles, and thought that it would be interesting to know more about creatures that hunt in the dark. We undertook three experiments to answer our question. There were four groups.
Experiment no. 1-Natural ways to improve your eyesight:
The first question we wanted to answer was whether there were any natural ways we could improve our ability to see in the dark. We came up with four suggestions that we found on the internet. These were:
*Exercising*
*Carrots*
*Covering one eye*
*Wearing red tinted glasses*
We tested our four suggestions. We got an eye chart off the internet. We covered all of the brightness in the room and turned off the lights. The group took the eyesight test before testing our suggestions. We started with the carrots. Two people from Group 2 had to eat a carrot. There was no improvement. We got another two people from Group 2. We tried doing exercise. The two people ran around our yard seven times. Then we took the eyesight test again. There was an improvement. Then we tried covering one eye. We took another two people from Group 2. There was no improvement. Finally we tried wearing red tinted glasses. There was no improvement.
Experiment no. 2: Can you use infrared light to see images?
A few people mentioned rods and cones and lenses and iris. The rods help us to see in the dark and cones help us to see color. The iris is the colorful part of the eye, it has muscles attached to it that allow it to change the shape. The iris controls how much light passes through our pupils. This is the black circle in the center of the eye. The lens is behind the iris and is transparent. Its job is to focus the rays of light onto the retina at the back of the eyeball. When the light passes through the lens, it is turns upside down. The brain sends signals through the muscles that can not focus the light properly. We need to use glasses to help us see.
Experiment no. 3: Can you use a digital camera to see infrared light?
First we needed a shoe box, then we needed masking tape, tinfoil, 3D glasses and infrared lights. We put four holes in the shoe box, we turned on the lights, we looked through the box, after we looked, we put on the 3D glasses and covered the blue eye and looked through the red eye. We swapped eyes from red to blue and looked through. Unfortunately it did not work.
Experiment no.4: How does it look without infrared filter in a digital camera?
We bought a camera with an infrared filter. We had to take apart the camera and we had to take off small screws to take out the infrared filter. After we put everything back together, we turned back on the camera. It looked darker after we took out the infrared filter. We also got a remote with an infrared sensor. When we pressed the on button we could not see the light, but when we put it on the camera you can see the infrared light.
Overall results
We found that you can improve your ability to see in the dark. Wearing 3D glasses and trying to view infrared light does not work well, eating carrots does not help either. We found that covering one eye, wearing red-tinted glasses and exercise can improve your ability to see in the dark and that putting a natural light filter onto a digital camera allows you to see infra-red light which could be used to see in the dark.
And That Was What Our Project Is About!
We were split in to four groups. Group 1 started talking about our project. Every 15 minutes we swapped groups. There were 48 different projects. There were two shows that we went to. The first one was called: Litter Lab. It was about plastic found on the streets and on the ocean and it was also about harming animals. The woman did an experiment about flooding because of plastic. She had four drains, she blocked two of the drains, she got diet coke and Mentos, then she pulled a lever, and the diet coke filled up the hole. That showed how plastic affects the city. Our second show that we went to was called Gastronaut.It was about making food with science. A guy made liquid snot and made a teacher eat the snot. He did more experiments. If you want to see more experiments go to GastronautTV. After that we went back to our stand. After a while, a judge came to give us feedback on our project. He gave us a plaque. We had to wait a while for our bus to arrive. Our bus came at 3:00pm. On the way back we went to the Crescent shopping center and got McDonald’s. We got back at 5:30pm. And that was our day our in Limerick. We all enjoyed the day out in Limerick.
Togher Boys' National School 