Optics and Photonics Training for Inquisitive eXperimentalists (OPTIX)

该奖项支持好奇心实验者光学和光子学培训(OPTIX)，该项目旨在威拉米特大学创造一个创新的、动手操作的实验室环境，本科生、大二和大三学生可以在专门的空间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，为更严格和更有意义的高年级顶峰项目做好准备，并为他们毕业后在STEM领域的职业生涯提供至关重要的技能和动力。还将为切梅克塔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举办与光学相关的动手展览。光学模块将需要不同程度的学生成熟、培训和参与。最基本的光学模块将提供对光学的介绍，并作为进入更高级活动的门户。然后，二年级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想法和技术。初级课程的重点是中级模块，其中一些是二年级模块的延伸，另一些模块是高级模块的延伸，学生可以在四年级学习这些模块，或者作为独立的研究项目，为过渡到研究性实验室做准备。将在外部评估员的帮助下，通过评估学生在接触OPTIX单元之前、期间和之后的技能和态度来确定这一倡议的有效性。

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.