Optics and Photonics Training for Inquisitive eXperimentalists (OPTIX)

该奖项支持“光学和光子学探究性实验训练”（OPTIX）项目，该项目旨在在威拉米特大学创建一个创新的、动手操作的实验室环境，在这里，本科生、大二学生和大三学生可以在一个专门的空间里使用研究级光学设备，旨在促进深入的、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，为他们更严格、更有意义的大四毕业项目做准备，并为他们毕业后在STEM领域的职业生涯提供重要技能和动力。还将为Chemeketa社区学院的当地社区大学生开发模块，并为俄勒冈州塞勒姆的吉尔伯特之家儿童博物馆开发光学相关的实践展览。光学模块将需要不同水平的学生的复杂程度，培训和参与。最基本的光学模块将提供光学的介绍，并作为更高级活动的门户。然后，大二的学生继续学习三个额外的基本模块，向他们介绍更复杂的思想和技术。初级阶段的重点是中级模块，其中一些是大二期间遇到的模块的扩展，另一些是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，为他们过渡到研究实验室做准备。在外部评估人员的帮助下，通过评估学生在接触OPTIX模块之前、期间和之后的技能和态度来确定这一举措的有效性。

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.