The Lightwave programme and roadshow: an overview and update

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.

Modular and extensible lesson on fiber optics for youths

“…OPSoc is run by and for (mostly PhD) students of the university and comprises student chapters of The Optical Society (OSA), SPIE, and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Photonics Society. 6 The Roadshow, established in 1998, 3 engages with youths to teach them about optics via a pedagogy based on interaction with experiments. These are conducted or supervised by graduate student demonstrators or 'Lightwave Ambassadors'.…”

“…This can be achieved either by the students themselves by manipulating the incidence angle on the gelatin set-up as in Fig. 7a, or through a class demonstration of the Tyndall/Colladon experiment, 6 where demonstrators guide laser light through a flowing water stream as in Fig. 7b.…”

Cathedral outreach: student-led workshops for school curriculum enhancement in non-traditional environments

“…and also at an institutional level. We direct the reader towards a recent report for further discussion on the drivers of this culture change 5 and also funding opportunities that can benefit community programs, in particular for student-led community education programs. 6 The quality of the engagement activity from an educational and social perspective is an important factor, and there are growing requirements to provide measurable evidence of the impact of the activity: we will present in §5 examples of results that can be employed for reporting purposes when working with pupils.…”

From school classes to UNESCO: IYL-enabled environments for tackling the STEM skills shortage through student-led outreach

“…The Lightwave Director, in addition to acquiring ambassador skills, develops strong negotiation, budget, time and project management, and organization skills. The reader is referred to a recent paper describing the program dynamics and organization in detail 2 . Experience gained as students allows the program directors and experienced ambassadors to identify possible partnerships with external and internal partners in the university.…”