Professional Development Workshops |
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LASER-TEC, the Center for Laser and Fiber Optics Education, offers a professional development workshop “Lasers and Fiber Optics”. It is designed for middle school and high school educators teaching math, science, technology, and engineering and is offered at least two times a year at each partner college.
The purpose of this workshop is to introduce cutting edge technologies of lasers and fiber optics to high and middle school educators, and help them integrate math and science applications into existing lesson plans. This workshop covers basic and advanced topics of light, lasers, and fiber optics and includes hands-on activities throughout the workshop. Participants investigate the nature of light, its dual nature, colors, color addition and subtraction, electro-magnetic spectrum, spectroscopy, laws of reflection and refraction, imaging, critical angle and light propagation in optical fiber, interference, diffraction, polarization, and fundamentals of laser operation. |
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Benefits of the LASER-TEC Workshop
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Explore the Field Before the Workshop
To allot more time for demonstrations and hands–on during the workshop, we encourage our participants to refresh and hone their knowledge on basic concepts of light and lasers. To help you with this task we put together a list of helpful video and reading materials:
View materials |
Topics Covered at the Workshop
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Lasers & Fiber Optics Workshop Learning Objectives
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1. Identify different types of light sources
2. List the properties of laser light: single wavelength (monochromatic), directional, low divergence, and coherence 3. Differentiate between coherent and non-coherent light sources 4. Explain eye damage that may occur with improper use of lasers 5. Compare laser light absorption by optical filters used in safety goggles 6. Practice safe laser use 7. Define the electromagnetic nature of light 8. Describe visible light as a part of the electromagnetic spectrum 9. Identify white light and its components 10. Specify primary and secondary colors 11. Compare two different methods of mixing colors 12. Define white light and recognize its components 13. Describe color light as a wave of a specific frequency 14. Explain what happens to light when it strikes a surface 15. Identify selective absorption and reflection 16. understand how selective absorption and reflection of light is used in barcode scanning 17. Define a normal to the surface, angle of incidence, and angle of reflection 18. Use a protractor to measure angles 19. State and verify the law of reflection 20. List several modern applications of the law of reflection 21. Describe what happens to light as it strikes a surface 22. Reason the difference between specular and diffuse reflection 23. Apply the property of light diffusion to identify damage of a frosted light bulb filament 24. Define refraction of light |
25. State and explain the law of refraction
26. Predict light behavior at the boundary of two different optical media 27. Define critical angle 28. Explain total internal reflection 29. List common applications of total internal reflection 30. Explain what a convex lens is 31. Trace light through a convex lens 32. Determine when light rays are considered parallel 33. Measure the focal length of a double convex lens (DCX) 34. List a few applications of DCX lenses 35. Explain what a concave lens is 36. Trace light through a concave lens 37. Measure the focal length of a double concave lens (DCV) 38. List a few applications of DCV lenses 39. Identify risks associated with infrared radiation 40. Identify which laser pointers have potential IR radiation 41. Understand how to properly protect their eyes 42. Define polarization 43. Differentiate between full and partial polarization 44. List the common polarization applications 45. Define and explain diffraction of light 46. Explain conditions required to observe diffraction of light 47. Describe diffraction grating 48. Reason the results of white and monochromatic light propagation through a diffraction grating |
See what other STEM teachers say about
LASER-TEC workshop:
“Dear Dr. Panayiotou, “I enjoyed every minute of it. I do appreciate your knowledge and expertise and the setting of the laser and fiber optics lab. Thank you.” “Thank you for a wonderful professional development. The presentation provided succinct information to clarify light …and the uncomplicated demonstrations will hit the mark for middle school students. The provided detailed book and supply kit will become a valuable teaching resource that I will share with my science department. |
“I ♥ the hands-on with explicit instruction of each activity. I loved that the experiments were short, to the point, yet full of science and math concepts.” “I liked everything about the workshop, especially the hands-on and support offered to my class.” “I teach a class called Intro to Info Tech and we cover a wide range of information about technology. I always have a hard time explaining how the video subsystem of a computer works. I used your lesson on the Electromagnetic Spectrum and colors to explain how a video monitor uses the additive property of color to create the images we see on our screens. Then I also used it to explain how a printer uses the subtractive process of color mixing. It was very helpful to be able to provide students with the background knowledge. Now they know it does not just happen by magic. J I will also be using the lessons in my A+ Certification and Networking classes to explain video, printing and fiber optic properties. Thank you for the valuable workshop.” -Lynn Krieger, Information Technology Instructor “I recently attended the teacher workshop and absolutely loved it! I learned so much and can’t wait to start trying a few of the experiments with my students.” |
