Establishing a photonics teaching facility and program in a Singapore secondary school

Theresa Lai; Mark Wee; Andrew Thurairaja Sabaratnam; Gopalkrishna M. Hegde

doi:10.1117/12.468689

28 May 2002 Establishing a photonics teaching facility and program in a Singapore secondary school

Theresa Lai, Mark Wee, Andrew Thurairaja Sabaratnam, Gopalkrishna M. Hegde

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Proceedings Volume 4588, Seventh International Conference on Education and Training in Optics and Photonics; (2002) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.468689
Event: Education and Training in Optics and Photonics 2001, 2001, Singapore, Singapore

Abstract

As a premier school, Raffles Institution (RI) seeks relevant and forward-looking educational initiatives. Bringing emerging technologies into the school encourages the students to cultivate skills and attitudes that will empower them to ride the present and future waves of information and technology most meaningfully and innovatively. Photonics has diverse applications in the modern technological world, and Singapore aims to become a center of excellence for optics and photonics in the region. However, a serious study of photonics begins only at the college level (K - 11/12). Entrusted with Singapore's brightest young minds, RI pioneered the development of a Photonics Exploratory Laboratory (X-LAB), being the first among secondary (K-7 to K- 10) schools in Singapore and possibly in the region. Young RI students are learning photonics fundamentals and recognizing photonics as a potentially rewarding field of study. With the expertise of lecturers from tertiary institutions, selected RI students are instructed in basic theory and trained in fundamental experiments. These students progress to embark on projects and in-depth studies under the wing of tertiary institutions and universities. Studies on Haidinger Fringes, Laser Doppler Anemometry and Optical Gratings have thus been successfully completed. Furthermore, the X-LAB acts as a focal point for students to experiment with Holography and Laser Animation.

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Theresa Lai, Mark Wee, Andrew Thurairaja Sabaratnam, and Gopalkrishna M. Hegde "Establishing a photonics teaching facility and program in a Singapore secondary school", Proc. SPIE 4588, Seventh International Conference on Education and Training in Optics and Photonics, (28 May 2002); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.468689

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