Seeing Vision

On Tuesday, we continued to learn about vision by discussing the eyes of different species and the structure of the human eye.  To illustrate how the lens focuses light on the retina, the monks were given magnifying glasses and asked to focus the light coming from outside the classroom onto a piece of paper.  Without understanding what the monks were saying, I could tell that they saw an inverted image.  This is what happens in our eyes: an inverted image of the outside world is projected on the photosensitive cells in our retinas.

We moved on to talk about photoreceptors (rod, cones), how they respond to light and how they are distributed around the retina.  The monks used colored paper to draw letters and numbers and then moved the paper from their peripheral vision to more central vision.  I asked the monks to note when they saw movement, shape, color and then detail.  All of the monks agreed that movement and shape, but not color and detail, can be seen when light activates the peripheral parts of the retina.