Modular and extensible lesson on fiber optics for youths

Abstract

Fiber optics and its application in telecommunications are rarely encountered by students until they reach tertiary education. While some secondary/middle school curricula may include coverage of basic geometrical optics concepts such as reflection and refraction, few if any go further to elaborate on how these eventually relate to global telecommunications. One could say that the science is made accessible for early-stage students, but discussions about applications are often reserved till later stages. In working through a PhD student-led optics educational outreach program called the "Lightwave Roadshow", we have observed, via engagements with young students and the public at school visits and fairs, that many youths (as well as parents) do have a basic appreciation that the internet is somehow based on light signals. However, few know how the two are related, much less how they work. To address this, our team of 'ambassadors' in the Lightwave program has designed a self-contained lesson to introduce youths, aged 11 to 18 years, to fiber optics and optical fiber communications, drawing inspiration from various educational resources such as LASER Classroom™ and the Exploratorium ® . The lesson is modularized into several parts, starting with using light to communicate Morse code, and then going into advanced concepts, such as total internal reflection and multiuser communications based on wavelength-division multiplexing. The latter can be treated as extensions whose inclusion can be tailored based on the youths' educational levels. A feature of this lesson is that it takes a more phenomenological than theoretical approach, and uses materials that are easily obtainable or craftable as well as interesting for youths, including colored gelatin, LED sources, and water as a waveguide. We outline a lesson and pedagogical method which contains hands-on experiments that can be carried out by educators in formal or informal classes, students learning independently, or optics and photonics student chapters and groups doing educational outreach. The experiments within were first demonstrated at the 2016 OSA Frontiers in Optics/Laser Science conference.

Modular and extensible lesson on optical fibre communication for youths

“…This lesson was first presented at the 2017 Conference on Education and Training in Optics and Photonics [6]. This paper extends the exposition and evaluates the module implementation in several class workshops.…”

Overview of Recent Advances in the Design of Plasmonic Fiber-Optic Biosensors

“…Conventional optical fibers can enable single mode low loss light transmission with a moderate level of dispersion; therefore, they have been used extensively for fiber-optic telecommunications [25]. Conventional optical fibers are usually made from silica glass and consist of a solid core with the index of refraction n core encircled by a cladding material with slightly lower index of refraction n clad < n core [22].…”

“…Conventional optical fibers are usually made from silica glass and consist of a solid core with the index of refraction n core encircled by a cladding material with slightly lower index of refraction n clad < n core [ 22 ]. The incoming light can be confined in the core region of a conventional optical fiber if the incidence angle is smaller than a critical angle [ 25 ]. This mechanism of light confinement in conventional optical fibers is called total internal reflection [ 25 ], which is illustrated in the Figure 1 a.…”

“…The incoming light can be confined in the core region of a conventional optical fiber if the incidence angle is smaller than a critical angle [ 25 ]. This mechanism of light confinement in conventional optical fibers is called total internal reflection [ 25 ], which is illustrated in the Figure 1 a.…”

Cathedral outreach: student-led workshops for school curriculum enhancement in non-traditional environments

“…The workshop also has two additional table-top activities and the reader is referred to supporting reports for details on the kit relating to the the electromagnetic spectrum 5 and telecommunications. 20 …”