Know your Body – Eyes

EYES

Which part of your body lets you read the back of a cereal box, check out a rainbow, and see a Cricket ball heading your way? Which part lets you cry when you’re sad and makes tears come out of them? Which part has muscles that adjust to let you focus on things that are close up or far away? If you guessed the eye, you’re right!

Your eyes are at work from the moment you wake up to the moment you close them to go to sleep. They take in tons of information about the world around you — shapes, colors, movements, and much much more. Then they send the information to your brain for processing so the brain knows what’s going on outside of your body.

You can see that the eye’s pretty amazing. So, come on — let’s take a tour of its many parts.

The Parts of the Eye

You can check out different parts of the eye by looking at your eye in the mirror or by looking at (but not touching) a friend’s eye. Some of the eye’s parts are easy to see, so most friends would say OK. Most friends won’t say OK if you ask to see their liver!

Your eyes are fragile, squidgy balls made of watery jelly so they need to be well protected. Eyebrows sit above your eyes and prevent sweat from dripping into them. and your Eyelids and lashes stop dust from entering the eyes and then sweep it well away.

Tear glands behind your eyes produce drops of salty fluid. When you blink, your eyelids sweep this fluid over your eyes to keep them clean. If something gets into your eye, or you feel strong emotions, the drops turn into floods of tears.

Blue, green, gray, or brown…what color are your eyes? The color of your iris depends on the instructions for eye color that you inherit from your parents. Your eyes are a bit like tiny video cameras but filled with fluid. Light enters the eye through a hole in the iris, the pupil, and travels to the retina. Messages are sent to the brain, which tells you what you see.