LASER-TEC Expands K-12 Professional Development in Photonics to Career Technical Education - Oct. 13, 2017
Professional development for STEM educators has always been an area of emphasis for LASER-TEC. Implemented during the preplanning grant in 2011-2012, the Center continues developing and offering workshops on lasers, fiber optics, and best practices in the technology integration into STEM curriculum.
Traditionally, the workshop has been offered to public, private, and charter or magnet schools. In recent months, a strong partnership with the North Carolina and Florida Career Technical Education (CTE) Departments enabled LASER-TEC to offer the workshop for CTE instructors and expand the awareness about photonics to students not usually impacted by the workshops.
LASER-TEC has hosted a total of six workshops for 75 CTE teachers in North Carolina and Florida. The most recent workshop, held by Gary Beasley and Dr. Chrys Panayiotou in Washington, NC on October 6th 2017, brought together 15 teachers from the Beaufort County Schools. According to the county in any given year CTE teachers will teach approximately 4,100 students of the approximately 7,000 students that attend Beaufort County Schools. These numbers indicate that workshops for CTE teachers can be a great mechanism to better prepare middle and high school students for college programs and careers in photonics.
Participants of LASER-TEC's "Laser and Fiber Optics" workshops receive a free kit and detailed lesson plans that support 15 fundamental demonstrations in optics and photonics. These demonstrations are cross-referenced to national and state of Florida science standards. Currently, the Center is working on linking each demonstration to the Next Generation Science Standards.
If you would like to learn more about the workshops, the kits, or the lesson plans, contact LASER-TEC Principal Investigator, Dr. Chrys Panayiotou at 772-462-7621 or cpanayio@irsc.edu.
Traditionally, the workshop has been offered to public, private, and charter or magnet schools. In recent months, a strong partnership with the North Carolina and Florida Career Technical Education (CTE) Departments enabled LASER-TEC to offer the workshop for CTE instructors and expand the awareness about photonics to students not usually impacted by the workshops.
LASER-TEC has hosted a total of six workshops for 75 CTE teachers in North Carolina and Florida. The most recent workshop, held by Gary Beasley and Dr. Chrys Panayiotou in Washington, NC on October 6th 2017, brought together 15 teachers from the Beaufort County Schools. According to the county in any given year CTE teachers will teach approximately 4,100 students of the approximately 7,000 students that attend Beaufort County Schools. These numbers indicate that workshops for CTE teachers can be a great mechanism to better prepare middle and high school students for college programs and careers in photonics.
Participants of LASER-TEC's "Laser and Fiber Optics" workshops receive a free kit and detailed lesson plans that support 15 fundamental demonstrations in optics and photonics. These demonstrations are cross-referenced to national and state of Florida science standards. Currently, the Center is working on linking each demonstration to the Next Generation Science Standards.
If you would like to learn more about the workshops, the kits, or the lesson plans, contact LASER-TEC Principal Investigator, Dr. Chrys Panayiotou at 772-462-7621 or cpanayio@irsc.edu.
