- Courses
- Education Outreach Resources
- ABET
- Contact SPIE Education
|
 |
Online Resources: Labs, Lessons, Websites, Materials, and More
SPIE is a not-for-profit society for aspiring and established engineers, specifically in the science of light.
We've assembled this list of websites containing lesson plans, activities, demonstrations, and other free materials to provide resources for educators, parents, and students. Use them to bring light into your classroom!
Resources:
|
|

|
SCIENCE OF LIGHT RESOURCES
Labs & Lessons
-
Canon Science Lab - What is Light?
-
Computational Imaging Lab - Fun optics demos and activities from UC Berkeley
-
Deceiving Art: A Guide to Stereograms - How they work and instructions to create your own - includes grade specific lesson plans
-
Diffraction Glasses: What's in a Color? - Lesson plan for diffraction grating glasses
-
Disappearing Penny - PDF showing how refraction can make a penny seem to disappear
- Dumpster Optics - Inquiry-based activities illustrating basic optics concepts using inexpensive, commonly found material
-
Exploring the Colors of Light - PDF of an experiment to examine the colors radiated by different light sources
-
Integrating Sphere Demo - Build a cheap, integrating sphere for color light demonstrations
-
Laser Fountain Demonstration - Build a fun laser fountain to show what light is and how laser light is special
-
Laser Microphone Demonstration - See a laser light move with the frequency of your voice
-
Light and Photonics eBook - Download 100 educational activities about light and photonics
- Light and Laser Experiments - Free lesson plans, activities, labs, and experiments focused on Light, Lasers, Optics, Waves and Electromagnetic Radiation
-
Make Your Own 3D Glasses - Simple Wiki-How instructions for making a pair of 3D glasses
-
NASA Educational Materials - Light and Color activities for grades K-12
-
Teacher's Lab: The Science of Light - Part of the Annenberg project to help teachers and students understand the basic principles of light
-
TeAchnology - Waves, sound, and optics lesson plans
Online Resources
-
A Kid's Guide to Light - A listing of activities and resources for young people interested in learning about light and adults interested in helping them
-
Bibliography of Classical Optics - Approximately 1,500 titles, compiled by Douglas Goodman, Polaroid Corp (1980-1993), PDF format 230K
-
Light Science for Kids - Shine light on scientific facts to see how everything revolves around light
-
Optics 4 Kids - A website for students, teachers, and parents devoted to everything optics
-
Photon terrace - A fun website from Hamamatsu to learn about light
-
PHOTON2 - Introduction to photonics for teachers
-
Photonics - Technical applications of light - Infographics explaining photonics
-
Prismatic Magic - Laser programs to bring to your school
-
Science, Optics &, You - Free standards-based, interdisciplinary curriculum package for elementary students and teachers to explore light, color, and optics
-
Science Made Simple - Beyond the Rainbow, the Invisible World - Traveling shows in the UK bringing inspirational science to your school
-
The Exploratorium Science Snacks - Snacks about Light
-
Photonics4All - A European outreach project, funded by the European Commission to promote photonics and light based technologies
Videos
ASTRONOMY RESOURCES
-
Eclipse Live Website - The University of Applied Sciences in Offenburg provides live broadcasts of eclipses along with explanations of the phenomena
-
The Hubble Site - Spectacular pictures of stars, galaxies, nebulae and more
-
Jet Propulsion Lab - NASA JPL site with videos, games, and projects about outer space, the solar system, and space exploration
-
Visions of the Future Posters - Nine artists, designers, and illustrators partnered with JPL to design 14 posters all available to download
-
Kids Astronomy - Designed to teach children about the exciting world of outer space
-
Look Up to the Stars - Traveling Astronomy
HOLOGRAPHY RESOURCES
-
Britannica Kids - Good diagram and simple explanation of a hologram
-
How to Make a Hologram - Wiki instructions to make a 3-D hologram. It’s easier than you think!
-
MIT Holography Museum - The collection contains works representing the artistic and technical evolution of the medium, created by some of the world's foremost holographers
ENGINEERING RESOURCES
GENERAL SCIENCE RESOURCES
CAREER RESOURCES
RESOURCES FOR GIRLS
-
CanTEEN Career Exploration - For girls 11-17 and their parents, teachers, and mentors
-
Cascade Pass - Publisher of a book series encouraging young girls in the sciences
-
Engineer Girl - National Academy of Engineering website designed to bring national attention to the exciting opportunities engineering offers to girls and women
-
Girl Scouts - GirlsGoTech project
-
Science Club for Girls - STEM programs for girls from underrepresented communities
-
Women @ NASA - Resource developed to encourage young women to pursue careers in math, science, and technology
|
|