2.1

Evaluating the results of the survey

The results of the survey at first glance appear to be consistent, though not all classes completed the survey. Pitch is also taught through the music programs so it would be expected that most students would understand this principal. Because of scheduling, some classes had already started their curriculum units on light and the senses. Assuming that most classes are 20-25 students, two classes appear to understand lessons in white light and reflection. However, the “law of reflection” is not taught as part of the curriculum so this indicates the students do not know what they think they know. Though in practice, these results should guide our workshops for the year, in reality, the workshops were planned because of the large number of students, availability of qualified workshop instructors and space.

2.2

Teaching to large groups of students

Though our preference is to teach to small groups of students (20-25 is ideal), realistically this is not possible. Because we are accommodating three schools, each from a different district, they have different calendars and this past winter was particularly difficult with large amounts of snow affecting school calendars. In addition, we want students to reinforce their learning by taking “something” home from the workshops to show their families. The cost of the materials must be calculated and kept within reason. In planning a workshop of 45-50 minutes the amount of time involved in handing out materials must also be considered.

We provided the students with bright orange t-shirts with the financial sponsors’ names on the back and Jr Laser Camp on the front. The teachers appreciated this because they could easily spot their students on the large campus settings and when our program was at O’Connell, could easily identify the students participating in our program.

2.3

Planning the workshops for the year

The plan for the 2013-2014 school year would include three class meetings of all 150 students (refer to Figure 1) attending each class meeting and closing with Jr Laser Camp: the first at Central Connecticut State University (CCSU), the second hosted by one of the participating elementary schools, O’Connell, and the last meeting, Jr. Laser Camp, at Three Rivers Community College. In addition, there would be lessons in the classroom in between the large gatherings and in closing a post-content survey would be provided to assess what the students had learned. Workshops at each of the class meetings would include the integration of either art or music with a science lesson. An ambitious plan, indeed.

Figure 1.

On the left 170 students gather for lunch at TRCC. On the right, example of student “homage to a square” artwork.

2.4

Introducing the first lesson: “What Color is a…?”

We decided to introduce ourselves to the students with an individual class lesson about color and how it is perceived. Included with this lesson, students read the book Hello, Red Fox, by Eric Carle.³

The hands-on portion of the lesson would be “What Color is a…?” chosen from the PHOTON II projects’ Explorations in Optics.² In this lesson, students answer the question, can your eyes be fooled by the color of a light source? A tomato is red under “white light,” but is it a red tomato if a blue LED light illuminates the tomato in a dark room? Our students were more interested in guessing the object rather than telling us what color they saw when the tomato was illuminated under blue light (blackish). The next object was a lime, which they did saw was black but again wanted to guess the object (which they predicted was an avocado).

The students were excited about this lesson, though not very interested in the details. They did have many questions about lighting in stores and did see the connection. The other purpose of this lesson was to meet the students and introduce the lessons for the year and this was accomplished.

3.1

“Make and take” spectroscopes

This is another workshop taken from the PHOTON II Explorations in Optics.² We have presented this many times but to a smaller audience and we were concerned how to adapt the lesson so that the students would understand the content. Other concerns included: how to hand out materials to all the students, how to present the lesson and meet the time limit of 45 minutes. Nonetheless, nearly every student at least reported seeing the “rainbows” and was able to correctly name the type of light producing the “mystery spectra” at the end of the lesson. This understanding is demonstrated in the hand drawn thank you postcards made by the students (refer to Figure 2).

Figure 2.

On the left, Judy Donnelly with students testing their spectroscopes. On the right, student ‘exit card’ drawing demonstrating what they learned about spectroscopes.

4.1

The artwork of Josef Albers

The emphasis of this workshop was for the students to continue their exploration of color and how it can be perceived. In this case, the students were developing an understanding of how colors interact with each other. Teachers were provided with Josef Albers’ book Interaction of Color and a student book An Eye for Color by Natasha Wing. Josef Albers reduced form to its simplest: a square of color. He then studied what happened visually when placing different colored squares together. Albers said “I’m not paying ‘homage to a square’. It’s only the dish I serve my craziness about color in.”⁵

With this inspiration, students practiced combining red squares, subtracting and adding colors, dull and dancing squares and then created their own “homage to a square in the style of Josef Albers” (refer to Figure 3). This artwork would be on display in a gallery walk at Jr Laser Camp (refer to Figure 1).

Figure 3.

On left, students creating refraction artwork. On right, students creating ‘homage to a square in the style of Josef Albers.’

4.2

Using still life painting to demonstrate refraction

For this lesson, the students were presented with a still life and instructed to use any of the art supplies available (colored pencil, water colors or markers) to sketch and color their representation of the still life (refer to Figure 3). They were then instructed to label this as “Still Life #1.” For the students who had some background in the study of light, they might have realized this was a lesson in refraction. For others, they were painting a picture of paint brushes in a jar.

At this point, the students stopped their work and were given a lesson in refraction. They were shown famous artwork that demonstrated refraction and asked to look more closely at their own work. They were then given the opportunity to create “Still Life #2” in which they looked more closely at the still life and included the refraction elements.

5.1

Make and Take Kaleidoscopes

The larger lesson is about reflection, but the art piece comes in with the “jewels” in the end cap of the kaleidoscope. Because this workshop was given to 70 students in one session, much of the time was spent in making the kaleidoscope and not in the lesson of reflection. On display was the “giant kaleidoscope” in which the students saw multiple images of themselves. However, the students enjoyed making the kaleidoscopes (refer to Figure 4).

Figure 4.

On left, students with kaleidoscopes. On right, students with ‘giant kaleidoscope.’

5.2

Pinhole photography

This lesson and take home project was developed and taught by the Three Rivers students. The complexity of why a pinhole camera works was beyond the understanding of this group of 5^th graders and the cameras were pre-made and the film loaded before students arrived. However, they were amazed by the results and enjoyed the process more than high school students. They liked that they were able to do something “out of the ordinary” and would like to take more photographs so they could improve the quality and “take it up a notch.” While the photos were being developed, students made bracelets of UV color changing beads and were reminded of the importance of sunscreen.

5.3

Polarized light art

Students first experimented with a 10 cm square of polarizing film mounted in cardboard frames, noticing the extinction of reflections from the floor and whiteboard. With a partner, they then experimented with parallel and perpendicular transmission axes. Polarization was (crudely) explained with the help of two oven racks. To create amazing “art”, students used cellophane tape to attach laser-cut cellophane shapes to the square polarizer, viewing the result through a smaller circle of laminated polarizing film (refer to Figure 5).

Figure 5.

On left, students creating polarized light art. On right, students with SPIE student chapter students demonstrating the laser engraver.

5.4

Laser engraving

Three Rivers students explained the process of engraving and cutting, paying special attention to the mirrors that direct the beam onto the work piece (refer to Figure 5). Each student was allowed to choose one of four graphics and watch as the graphics were engraved and then the wood piece was cut to form an oval key tag. Because the process is slow, students were also introduced to 3D printing and other projects in the TRCC Manufacturing Lab. Once the key tags were complete, students were shown how to fill-paint the engraving.

6.1

Lessons that did not work or need revising

Sometimes lessons do not work because of the organization or materials rather than the content. This is what happened for the still life lesson, homage to a square and kaleidoscopes.

For homage to a square, it was lack of skilled presenters and they did not thoroughly prepare themselves for the lesson content. “Squares was my favorite because it was artistic and I love art plus I get to be different and make it my own” said one student. For all of these lessons, because of time limitations and the number of students providing and distributing supplies was an issue. For that reason, students commented, “I think the kaleidoscopes were fine and when we were done they were very cool but other people kept asking for tape and that was annoying.” Lack of materials also affected the refraction workshop. Though the teachers liked the concept of the workshop, they thought each student should have their own paint set.

6.2

Lessons that worked

Our new Jr Laser Camp workshops, pinhole photography and polarized light art, were well received. About pinhole photography students wrote, “My favorite was pinholes because I think it’s really cool that you can take a picture without electronic devices” and “I liked the pinholes because I got to do something out of the ordinary.” Polarization was a favorite for another student “the polarized light art was my favorite because I understand it and we got to take it home.”

We are always trying to improve workshops and with spectroscopes, we have again improved the quality of the workshop. Though the content and lesson worked very well, it is the spectroscope itself that has been improved for next year. With the improvements, we will have more students comment like this one, “my absolute favorite was building spectroscopes because I saw the colors that make up a light bulb.”

By far, the most important lesson learned was to have skilled presenters. The workshops which were rated the lowest by both teachers and students were presented by inexperienced presenters. The TRCC students not only practiced their lessons, but also practiced the hands-on portion of the workshop. As a result, we received these comments from students “We thought about what the college students taught us about laser engraving and creative inventions. maybe we can do that when we get older” and “It was nice that the TRCC students volunteered their time to work with us. They were very helpful.” For the 5^th grade students, the common theme on their written year end evaluations was the workshops that were the best were the ones that they were highly engaged in using their creativity and they took something home.