Optics and Photonics Training for Inquisitive eXperimentalists (OPTIX)

该奖项支持探究性实验人员光学和光子学培训（OPTIX），该项目旨在在威拉米特大学创建一个创新的、实践性的实验室环境，本科二年级和三年级学生可以在专门的空间中使用研究级光学设备，旨在促进深入的工作基于探究的学习。学生将完成精心设计的模块，鼓励创造力和独立性，更好地为更严格和有意义的高年级顶点项目做好准备，并为毕业后在STEM领域的职业生涯提供重要的技能和动力。还将在Chemeketa社区学院为当地社区学院的学生开发模块，并为位于俄勒冈州塞勒姆的吉尔伯特之家儿童博物馆举办光学相关的动手展览。光学模块将需要不同水平的学生熟练程度、培训和参与。最基本的光学模块将介绍光学，并作为更高级活动的门户。学生在大二水平，然后继续采取三个额外的基本模块，介绍他们更复杂的想法和技术。初级阶段的重点是中间模块，其中一些是大二期间遇到的模块的扩展，另一些则导致学生可以在大四时学习的高级模块，或者作为独立的研究项目，为过渡到研究实验室做准备。这一举措的有效性将通过评估学生的技能和态度之前，期间和之后暴露于OPTIX模块与外部评估员的帮助下确定。

This award supports Optics and Photonics Training for Inquisitive eXperimentalists (OPTIX), a project to create an innovative, hands-on laboratory environment at Willamette University where undergraduate sophomores and juniors can work with research grade optics equipment in a dedicated space designed to foster deep, inquiry-based learning. Students will complete carefully designed modules that encourage creativity and independence, preparing them better for a more rigorous and meaningful senior year capstone project and giving them vital skills and motivation for a career in the STEM fields after graduation. Modules will also be developed for local community college students at Chemeketa Community College, and an optics related hands-on exhibition for the Gilbert House Children's Museum in Salem, OR.The optics modules will require different levels of student sophistication, training, and involvement. The most basic optics module will provide an introduction to optics, and serve as a gateway to the more advanced activities. Students at the sophomore level then continue taking three additional basic modules that introduce them to more sophisticated ideas and techniques. The focus at the junior level is on intermediate modules, some of which are extensions of modules encountered during the sophomore year and others which lead into the advanced modules that students can take in their senior year or as independent research projects to prepare them for the transition into research labs. The effectiveness of this initiative will be ascertained by assessing student skills and attitudes before, during, and after exposure to OPTIX modules with the help of an external evaluator.