Abstract

In many countries the potential of optics as an exciting part of science is not fully exploited in high-school education. In addition, optics is often not taught in relation with daily experiences. With the motivation to expose the potential of doing otherwise to motivate students, we developed and implemented a two hour-long hands-on introduction to optics for high school students. We termed the program: The Day of Light. By attending the program, students learn basic concepts such as polarization, wavelength, color, stereoscopic vision, reflection and refraction in connection to everyday experiences based on applications of optics. The demonstration was fully organized and carried out by the ICFO Ph.D students who were members of the ICFO Optical Society of America (OSA) Student Chapter.

© 2007 Optical Society of America