Look into my eyes: colours, light and powerful lasers

我们将通过一系列的活动在他们的课堂上吸引小学生与光的主题。通过早期的接触，我们的目的是激发学生将科学视为一种真正的职业和生活选择。我们将在中央激光设施等地方教育孩子们关于光的重要的、反直觉的性质，并使他们熟悉科学工作的性质。国际光年的持续成功清楚地表明，光和以光为基础的科学研究活动对一般公众具有重要意义。光无处不在，是日常生活的必需品。我们的活动旨在利用小学生认为不言而喻的真理，如“机器人很酷！”、“激光很酷！”和“外星行星很酷！”，以创造或加强“科学很酷！”这一更普遍的理解。我们将教育学生关于支持PI研究工作的光的重要特性，例如光的光谱和频率混合过程。我们还将解释这些性质对天文学的重要性。例如，通过类比声音中的多普勒效应，我们将演示如何使用光中的相对论多普勒效应来发现系外行星。这将在人形机器人的帮助下完成。此外，我们将强调，相对论多普勒效应是我们测量本地宇宙之外距离、研究宇宙膨胀和星系旋转的唯一真正途径。此外，我们的目标是为卢瑟福阿普尔顿实验室中央激光设施的Astra激光器等操作系统背后的原理和所涉及的工作提供实践介绍。孩子们将参与建立激光装置和各种活动，以帮助他们发展对光的波长/频率和频率混合的理解。我们的活动旨在吸引男女。我们将提高孩子们的信心和技能，使他们能够成功地使用真正的科学设备和工具，而不受性别的影响。我们还将提高对科学事业的认识，在访问学校期间，PI将由一名女性和一名男性博士生陪同。在目前政府资金限制的背景下，公众需要理解和信任公共资助的科学。通常，在公共资助的机构中开发的科学可能看起来很遥远，而且违反直觉。我们的目标是表明，反直觉的科学不仅可以理解，而且对小学生来说也很有趣和容易理解。因此，我们的信息不仅局限于课堂，也局限于他们的家庭，我们认为这对于科学问责制和透明度非常重要。此外，父母的影响在学生的学科选择中起着很大的作用，因此父母的参与也有助于孩子的参与。这个项目的一个重要目的是通过让博士生参与到这个公共推广项目中来激励他们，让他们感到被重视和认可。他们还将提高他们的沟通技巧，并通过监督/指导个人活动和提问/回答问题，在外展活动中发挥主导作用。我们的目标是在巴斯大学的科学家和当地小学的教育工作者之间建立伙伴关系。在未来，这些伙伴关系预计将通过额外的外展活动（由PI和他的同事）和通过皇家学会伙伴关系资助项目发展。这个项目将吸引更多的当地学校参与每年一度的“沐浴水龙头科学节”，这是针对小学的。与教师合作增加了学生的接触范围，并能对学校产生更深远的影响。

We will engage primary age students with the subject of light through a series of activities in their classroom. Through exposure at an early age, our intention is to inspire the students to think about science as a real career and life choice. We will educate the children about important, counter-intuitive properties of light and will familiarize them with the nature of scientific work, in places such as the Central Laser Facility. The ongoing success of the International Year of Light has clearly demonstrated the significant relevance of light and light-based scientific research activities to the general public. Light is everywhere and essential for everyday life. Our activities have been designed in a way that aims to capitalize on truths that primary school children hold to be self-evident, such as "Robots are cool!", "Lasers are cool!" and "Alien planets are cool!" in order to create or reinforce the more general understanding that "Science is cool!". We will educate the students about important properties of light that underpin the PI's research work, such as the spectrum of light and frequency mixing processes. We will also explain how these properties are crucial for Astronomy. For instance, by analogy with the Doppler Effect in sound, we will demonstrate how the Relativistic Doppler Effect in light can be used to discover exo-planets. This will be done with the help of a humanoid robot. Moreover, we will emphasize that the Relativistic Doppler Effect constitutes the only real way for us to measure distances beyond the local Universe, to study the expansion of the Universe and the rotation of galaxies. Furthermore, we aim to provide a hands-on introduction to the principles behind, and the work involved in, operating systems such as the Astra laser at the Central Laser Facility in the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory. The children will be involved in building laser setups and in various activities to help them develop an understanding of light's wavelength/frequency and frequency mixing. Our activities aim to appeal to both genders. We will increase the confidence and skill of the children in successfully handling real scientific equipment and tools, regardless of gender. We will also improve awareness of scientific careers as, during the visits to schools, the PI will be accompanied by both a female and a male PhD student. In the present context of government funding restrictions, the public needs understanding and trust in publicly-funded science. Often, the science being developed at publicly-funded facilities may seem remote and counter-intuitive. We aim to show that counter-intuitive science can be not only understandable but also fascinating and accessible to primary school children. Our message is thus not only limited to the classroom but to their families as well, which we believe is very important for the sake of scientific accountability and transparency. Moreover, parental influence plays a strong role in students' subject choices, and hence engaging parents will contribute to engaging children too. An important aim for this project is to motivate our PhD students by engaging them in this public outreach project, in order for the students to feel valued and recognized. They will also improve their communication skills and will be taking a leading role in the outreach by supervising/guiding individual activities and asking/answering questions. We aim to create partnerships between scientists at the University of Bath and educators within local primary schools. In the future, these partnerships are expected to grow through additional outreach activities (by the PI and his colleagues) and through Royal Society Partnership Grants projects. This project will lead to more participation from local schools in the yearly Bath Taps into Science festival, which is aimed at primary schools. Working with teachers increases the reach of students and can give a more embedded impact in schools.