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The Lightwave Programme and Roadshow: An Overview and Update

The Lightwave Programme and Roadshow: An Overview and Update
The Lightwave Programme and Roadshow: An Overview and Update
While optics and photonics are exciting disciplines with much research, industrial, and economic potential in the 21st century, this appreciation is only shared by a limited number of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) experts, and there is a recognized STEM skills shortage. To widen the pool of talent, it is essential to expose students to optics and photonics throughout their education and particularly starting at a young age. The Lightwave programme, consisting of an interactive collection of photonics demonstrations and experiments targeted for primary school students, was thus created to facilitate this endeavor. The programme is run by doctoral students forming a team of “Lightwave ambassadors”. All the demonstrations that comprise Lightwave can be easily integrated into a physics curriculum, enabling educators to generate more student interest and enhance the image of science through an interactive pedagogy. We provide a description of the programme at its initial inception, and report on the recent additions and updates that have brought about its success, moving from a purely outreach driven focus to engaging pupils with our own research. We also discuss our approach to ensuring that our team of ambassadors are from diverse backgrounds and use both male and female students as role models. Finally, we reflect on how evaluation methods to obtain feedback from our activities are key to Lightwave's sustainability and in improving the perception of optics and photonics.
Wong, N.H.L.
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Posner, M.T.
884b2318-83c1-4f8a-8d36-a2566b8766cb
John, P.V.
7e33c78a-14dd-4f15-8b5f-3de74b2b0eb9
Wong, N.H.L.
f9721f60-e45a-4f2b-9803-023d012fc743
Posner, M.T.
884b2318-83c1-4f8a-8d36-a2566b8766cb
John, P.V.
7e33c78a-14dd-4f15-8b5f-3de74b2b0eb9

Wong, N.H.L., Posner, M.T. and John, P.V. (2015) The Lightwave Programme and Roadshow: An Overview and Update. Conference on Education and Training in Optics and Photonics (ETOP), Bordeaux, France. 29 Jun - 02 Jul 2015. 16 pp . (doi:10.1117/12.2223239).

Record type: Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)

Abstract

While optics and photonics are exciting disciplines with much research, industrial, and economic potential in the 21st century, this appreciation is only shared by a limited number of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) experts, and there is a recognized STEM skills shortage. To widen the pool of talent, it is essential to expose students to optics and photonics throughout their education and particularly starting at a young age. The Lightwave programme, consisting of an interactive collection of photonics demonstrations and experiments targeted for primary school students, was thus created to facilitate this endeavor. The programme is run by doctoral students forming a team of “Lightwave ambassadors”. All the demonstrations that comprise Lightwave can be easily integrated into a physics curriculum, enabling educators to generate more student interest and enhance the image of science through an interactive pedagogy. We provide a description of the programme at its initial inception, and report on the recent additions and updates that have brought about its success, moving from a purely outreach driven focus to engaging pupils with our own research. We also discuss our approach to ensuring that our team of ambassadors are from diverse backgrounds and use both male and female students as role models. Finally, we reflect on how evaluation methods to obtain feedback from our activities are key to Lightwave's sustainability and in improving the perception of optics and photonics.

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More information

Submitted date: 6 December 2014
Accepted/In Press date: 19 February 2015
Published date: 8 October 2015
Venue - Dates: Conference on Education and Training in Optics and Photonics (ETOP), Bordeaux, France, 2015-06-29 - 2015-07-02
Organisations: Optoelectronics Research Centre, Physics & Astronomy

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 384450
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/384450
PURE UUID: 0e994c67-2646-41f6-b98f-f3460a5a6dde
ORCID for N.H.L. Wong: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-1743-3959
ORCID for M.T. Posner: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-4439-9135

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Date deposited: 02 Dec 2015 10:16
Last modified: 14 Mar 2024 21:59

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Contributors

Author: N.H.L. Wong ORCID iD
Author: M.T. Posner ORCID iD
Author: P.V. John

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