OSA News
OPTICSFORKIDS.ORG TEACHES THE FUNDAMENTALS OF LIGHT, PROVIDES INSTRUCTION GUIDES FOR TEACHERS
Washington, DC (July 11, 2005 ) — How do you teach kids about the science of light in terms they can understand, with examples they can relate to and make it exciting enough that they want to know more?
Addressing this issue, the Optical Society of America (OSA) has introduced OpticsforKids.org, an interactive resource with games, easy experiments and lesson plans that teachers can implement designed to teach kids about optics, the science of light.
Flash, an animated shooting star, serves as the site's mascot and guides users through the site's games, lessons and experiments. The goal of the site is to help bridge the gap of science education between the United States and other countries around the world.
"Science education is an important part of the Optical Society's mission," said Elizabeth Rogan, executive director of OSA. "By providing young students and educators with learning materials about the science of optics and photonics, we hope to help inspire future generations of scientists and engineers."
OpticsforKids.org was created with students and teachers in mind. It offers a number of new sections and enhancements, including:
- Experiments using everyday household objects, including how to make water lenses; how to make a telescope, and how to split white light.
- Optics games, including optical illusions, word finds and hidden objects challenges.
- Lesson plans for both teachers and parents to showcase the use of optics in everyday life.
The site has a number of lessons on optics that can be taught to anyone in elementary or high school. Through these lessons, students can learn about color, reflection, refraction, magnification, and light sources. Each lesson specifies which grade levels it is appropriate for and many include information on how to integrate the optics lesson with another subject's lessons such as art or language studies.
According to the Third Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), U.S. student relative performance has weakened in recent years. The available data suggest that the performance of U.S. fourth-graders in both mathematics and science was lower in 2003 than in 1995 relative to the 14 other countries that participated in the studies. Similarly, the TIMSS data showed that U.S. student performance becomes increasingly weaker at higher grade levels, with U.S. 9-year-olds scoring above the international average; 13-year-olds, near the average; and 17-year-olds, below it.
"Advancing global education is one of the key reasons we need Web sites like OpticsforKids.org,” said Rogan. “The Internet makes it possible to share these educational resources easily around the world. Students have a fun way to expand their science knowledge through this site. We are also offering the content in a variety of languages, in order to be as user friendly as possible."
To view the site, visit: www.opticsforkids.org.
About OSA
The Optical Society of America (OSA) brings together an international network of the industry's preeminent optics and photonics scientists, engineers, educators, technicians and business leaders. Representing more than 15,000 members from approximately 100 different countries, OSA promotes the worldwide generation, application and dissemination of optics and photonics knowledge through its meetings, events and journals. Since its founding in 1916, OSA member benefits, programming, publications, products and services have set the industry's standard of excellence. Additional information on OSA is available on the Society's Web site at
www.osa.org. OSA is proud to be a part of the World Year of Physics, a celebration of physics and the 100 th anniversary of some of Einstein's greatest achievements. Optics is the branch of physics that studies the properties of light. For additional information on World Year of Physics, visit
www.physics2005.org.
Advancing the Science and Technology of Light
