Teaching and learning geometric optics in middle school through the Turning Eyes to the Big Sky project

Abstract

Abstract. The Turning Eyes to the Big Sky project offered schools in southwestern Montana a unique opportunity to strengthen science instruction. The project implemented, in a formal setting, a nationally established informal science curriculum on light and optics, the Hands-on Optics Terrific Telescopes curriculum. Terrific Telescopes was implemented in eight middle-school classrooms and reached 166 students during the 2010 to 2011 school year. As part of the project, we conducted a teacher workshop and assessed student learning outcomes and teachers' experiences with the curriculum. The goals of our assessments were to improve our understanding of how students learn key optics-related principles, provide evidence of the learning outcomes of Terrific Telescopes, and find out how teachers adapt the curriculum for use in formal settings. Our research established that students in every classroom learned optics concepts, uncovered student ideas about telescope optics, and identified ways to support and supplement the curriculum for use in classrooms. © The Authors. Published by SPIE under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. Distribution or reproduction of this work in whole or in part requires full attribution of the original publication, including its DOI.

Cognition and thinking on Applied Optics course's reformation and innovation

“…It is not only the prerequisite course of the subsequent courses, but also can constitute a relatively complete optical system of theory to practice with physical optics, image quality evaluation technology, optical experiment, the optical design course. Applied optics teaching not only laid the foundation for the follow-up professional courses, but also try to develop students' critical thinking and problem-solving ability [1][2] course, we need to constantly explore and study the application of optical teaching content and teaching methods, and continuously improve the teaching effect and teaching quality, so as to achieve teaching objectives, improve students' innovative ability. …”