Center for Extreme Ultraviolet Science and Technology (EUV)

2006 Light and Optics Workshop for High School Teachers

In keeping with its education and outreach commitment to K-12 students and their teachers, the Center for Extreme Ultraviolet Science and Technology (EUV), an Engineering Research Center headquartered at Colorado State University, continues to present highly interactive light and optics workshops. Since 2004 the EUV ERC has offered daylong workshops to 56 K-12 teachers. In June of 2006 they presented their third annual teacher workshop to 15 middle and high school teachers from schools in Denver and Boulder counties. It featured challenging experiments involving basic concepts in lasers and optics, designed to be performed using only equipment and materials commonly found in a public high school classroom. For each light/optics concept the teachers tackle, observations of a simple physical phenomenon (e.g., the effect of a lens on light) are followed by questions and repeated experimentation (with, say, the lens) until the participants arrive at a sound understanding of the physics involved. The light/optics topics covered include: Refraction, Lenses, Pinhole Projection, The Eye, Fresnel lenses, Diffraction, and Refraction

As in previous editions of the teacher workshop, the emphasis was on encouraging teachers to adopt a constructivist approach to teaching their students science and engineering concepts. Thus, much of the workshop discussion centered on how to approach the various experiments to get students to question and ultimately understand simple physical concepts. This year the Center also donated a complete optics kit to each participating teacher. The kits contain all the materials and equipment needed to reproduce all of the experiments conducted in the workshop. The kits have been designed so that further copies can be made at minimal cost.

A follow-up survey of the participants in the 2006 workshop for K-12 teachers yielded the following results:

•   66% of participants currently teach a unit on light and optics.
•   33% do not teach about light or optics, but do teach physical science.
•   All participants agree or strongly agree that their basic knowledge of light/optics was enhanced by the workshop.
•   All participants agree or strongly agree that they learned new techniques for teaching concepts in light/optics that they will use in their own classrooms.
•   All participants strongly agree that the optics kits are useful and plan to use them in their classrooms.

When asked for comments explaining why this workshop was useful, teachers provided the following answers:

•   Hands-on approach is excellent. I was forced to see different ways of solving a problem.
•   I found easy experiments and demos my kids can do with little guidance; very inquiry based and had experiments that work every time.
•   Workshop offered logical instruction on why things behave the way they do (light, lenses, mirrors); materials help provide a concrete basis for developing student activities; teachers leave with a fully tested tool kit.
•   Each experiment built on the previous one; great individualized instruction.
  
•   Workshop provided a user-friendly method, a safe approach to use with students who have difficulty with abstract concepts-very concrete.

This annual program bridges the juncture between K-12 and undergraduate scientific and technical education by ensuring that K-12 teachers who participate have engaging new teaching tools that reflect cutting-edge research in a field of increasing importance to society. It is a model program that incorporates assessment via survey, and involves partnership with various school districts.

To learn more about this topic:
Visit the Center for Extreme Ultraviolet Science and Technology web page at http://euverc.colostate.edu/education/education.shtml.

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Last modified: April 13, 2007