Schematic illustration of a design.

Seeing Without Eyes

Can You See with Your Fingertips?

 

Materials

  • a long, clean, adult-sized sock
  • several natural objects, such as a shell, pinecone, feather

Try This

  1. Ask an adult to put one of the natural objects deep inside the sock.
  2. Reach inside the sock and explore the object with your fingers. Pay attention to the details of its shape and texture.
  3. Did you notice things about the object that you hadn't realized before?
  4. Repeat with the other natural objects.

What's Going On?

Everything in the natural world is full of design. The way each thing is designed helps it work. Shape, texture, color, strength — all of these things can be important.

When we recognize what something is, like a feather, we often stop looking further at it. By removing the use of your eyes, you explored each object in a new way, and “saw” them again as though for the very first time. This allowed you to discover new things about these familiar items, even better than if you used your eyes.

Schematic illustration of a girl.