Science Explorers: Professional Development > Workshops 2007-08

Science Explorers
Workshops 2007-08

The Nature of Light: Lasers, Optics, and Animal Vision

Lasers:
Lasers produce an amplified, highly concentrated, bright, and powerful beam of light through stimulated emission of radiation. They are used in many realms of life including medicine, military, entertainment, and telecommunication.

Students will investigate light reflection and refraction through a series of exciting experiments using prisms and lasers. Among other activities, students will measure the angle of the laser light as it bends in water and other media and play darts with reflected lights and mirrors. Students will become a light beam and bend through different mediums as they explore how light refracts. Lasers produce an amplified, highly

Light:
Students will explore light through a series of challenges. They will learn why light is energy and about different types of light. Students will separate white light into its colored components, observe and record light waves and intensities, and describe how a kaleidoscope works with light and mirrors to transform objects in our everyday world. Students will learn about how light controls everything from hibernation to the colors of the rainbow. 

The Eyes of Animals:
To learn about how the eyes work, the students will dissect a cow’s eye.  Students will identify the lens of the eye, the retina, the cornea, and the optic nerve. They will learn about different types of vision in the animal world and set up experiments with lens to see how we focus the eye. Students will investigate how light allows us to see.

Please contact Kristi Dahl at 303-492-0771 or Kristi.dahl@colorado.edu for more information.