Photonics Explorer
EYESTvzw is responsible for the exclusive distribution of the Photonics Explorer intra curricular educational kit . The kit equips teachers with class set of experimental material provided within a supporting didactic framework. The kit is given to teachers completely free of charge but only in conjunction with teacher training courses . The kits are sponsored for schools by industry, governmental and educational authorities, organisations or foundations.
The Photonics Explorer has been developed by an international team of teachers and experts in pedagogy from 11 EU countries to fit into diverse educational systems and teacher cultures, as part of an FP7 European project. The project was initiated by the Brussels Photonics Team (B-PHOT) at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel and brought together European industry, scientists at universities, teachers in secondary schools and several students!
The kit has been extensively tested with nearly 2000 students in 7 EU countries and the didactic content is currently available in 8 EU languages; Bulgarian, Czech, Dutch, English, French, German, Polish and Spanish.
Experimental Components:
To let students experience the excitement of doing science with their own hands, they need robust, versatile and safe experimental equipment. Therefore, each Photonics Explorer kit contains a class set of the following components for hands-on experiments. The provided experimental equipment is sufficient to let a class of up to 30 students work in small groups of 2 to 3 students:
- 10 aluminium mirrors (7x7 cm)
- 10 colour filter sets (7x4 cm) including red, green, blue, cyan, magenta and yellow
- 10 LED modules with red, green and blue LEDs
- 10 sets of robust plastic lenses with the focal lengths 30 mm, -30 mm, and 150 mm
- 20 polarisers (7x5 cm)
- 5 m polymer optical fibre
- 10 eyesafe Lasers
- 10 diffraction gratings
- 10 foils with slit and double slit for optical diffraction experiments
Educational modules
In addition to these components, the didactic framework includes 8 educational modules with worksheets, factsheets, and notes for teachers. Some modules also feature videos, which are specifically produced to support the suggested lesson outlines.
The didactic framework helps teachers to easily integrate the kit into their teaching styles and systems. It consists of relevant background information for the teacher, worksheets and other tools that make it easier to prepare the lessons and save the teachers' time.
This framework has a modular structure that allows teachers to adapt the material easily to the needs of their students and teaching situation. Each module deals with a specific topic and covers clearly defined educational targets generally found in national curricula. Modules can be used independently and are designed for about 1 to 4 lessons (à 45 min), depending on the topic.
As a teacher you can register your interest to have a Photonics Explorer kit on http://www.eyest.eu/Get-involved/Teacher-form
As a sponsor you can register your interest to sponsor a kit on http://www.eyest.eu/Get-involved/Sponsor-form
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