Pinhole Camera Design Challenge Instructor Notes. Jill Marshall ...

Jill Marshall &
Gretchen Edelmon
Handout - 1
Design Challenge Instructor Notes
UTeach Institute - NMSI Annual Conference
Austin, TX / May 24 – 26, 2011
At
the
beginning
of
the
main
activity
day,
present
the
challenge:
A
physics
teacher
needs
pinhole
cameras
for
her
class
to
use
later
that
same
day.
She
needs
at
least
four,
and
has
only
cereal
boxes,
soda
can
boxes,
and
oatmeal
canisters
from
which
to
make
them,
along
with
electrical
tape,
black
construction
paper
and
some
tracing
paper.
A
random
student
must
be
able
to
‘read’
a
target
image
projected
using
PowerPoint.
Briefly
demonstrate
the
principles
by
which
the
pinhole
camera
works‐
basically
just
showing
that
light
travels
in
a
straight
line
until
it
hits
something.
The
light
and
color
unit
from
Physics
by
Inquiry
volume
I
(McDermott
&
the
UW
PEG,
1996)
is
an
excellent
resource,
but
the
essence
can
be
conveyed
by
a
diagram
or
a
physical
model
using
yarn
or
dowels
to
represent
light
rays.
Show
examples,
including
one
transmission
and
one
reflection
design.
Students
have
25
minutes
to
construct
and
test
their
designs.
For
the
final
test
randomly
selected
students
read
three
random
letters
from
a
PowerPoint
image
using
each
of
the
cameras.
Students
brainstorm
elements
necessary
for
the
design
process
and
compare
with
the
UTeachEngineering
model.
For
homework,
students
reflect
on
the
process
and
develop
their
own
specifications
for
a
camera
to
be
used
in
their
prospective
classrooms.
Supplementary
Resources:
Online
resources
for
theory
and
background
are:
http://photo.net/learn/pinhole/pinhole
http://theartofphotography1.blogspot.com/2009/07/camera‐obscura‐pre‐history‐of.html
http://www.pinhole.cz/en/pinholecameras/whatis.html
http://inventors.about.com/od/pstartinventions/a/stilphotography.htm
http://www.pinholeday.org/
These
two
links
are
good
for
opening
discussions
because
they
show
the
camera
obscura
on
a
HUGE
scale.
• This
article
from
National
Geographic, http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/05/cameraobscura/oneill‐text
,
includes
a many
examples
of
full
room
camera
obscura
images
and
a short
video
showing
how
a
group
of
people
transformed
an
office
into
a
camera
obscura.
• A
giant
camera
obscura
was
created
as
part
of
the
Legacy
Photo
Project
and
is
described
in
the
following
two
links.
http://www.legacyphotoproject.com/
video: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=‐8711483461517692046#
Peer
reviewed:
4