News From Student Sections

OSA Activity Grants & Foundation
Youth Education Outreach Grants in Action

Every year OSA provides grants of up to $1,000 to support meetings, activities and education outreach programs of OSA Local Sections and Student Chapters. Last year, these grants enriched over 15 Student Chapters with funds for new programs. The following Chapters are just a few of those receiving funds. Read about what they did with their funding!

• The INAOE Student Chapter of OSA ( Puebla , México) did basic optics experiments for approximately 115 school children during October and November of 2005.  The experiments were about ray tracing, polarization, image formation and optics illusions.  This activity affected elementary and high school students. 
  
  Writes the Chapter, "The kids were very excited and surprised about how can they manipulated light. They were very enthusiastic about learning more about optics and how this knowledge affects their daily life. In particular, the polarization experiment, which was about how to generate colors just with this phenomenon, was one of the best to amaze the elementary students. We were very surprised about the response of the children in these activities. We learned how to explain optics in an easy way. We are encouraged with this kind of interaction with the students."

• The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Student Chapter of OSA held a "Photons after Dark" forum for approximately 30 students to share their research ideas and build their presentation skills in a friendly environment where fellow students are able to provide useful feedback and constructive criticisms.  These talks were not open to faculty members so as to develop a relaxed atmosphere.  Student presentations of conference talks, class projects, grant proposals, and optical theories provided educational collaboration among different departments (physics, engineering, and life sciences) for all discipline levels (from undergraduate to post doctorate).  Development of presentation skills is essential for students' careers and networking abilities.
  
  The Chapter writes, '"Photons after dark" fostered intellectual discussions and attracted students to research in optics related disciplines.  The optics community found that the student chapter is a great place for collaborative discussion on up-to-date optics theories and research.  The attendees gained a broad insight into the applications of optics theories from multiple backgrounds.'

• The Universidad del Valle (CUVO) Student Chapter of OSA (located in Cali , Colombia ) held a workshop for high-school students from 14 November to 12 December, 2005, at the Santa Librada School, Cali - Colombia . The workshop included a set of lectures that gave a global vision of optics and its applications on new technologies oriented to high-school students. The Chapter performed several experimental activities easy to implement in the class, the lecture topics included: Nature of Light and Color, Light Propagation, Mirrors and Lenses, The Human Eye, Interference, Diffraction, Astronomy and Spectroscopy.  Each experimental session included the participation of the school teachers, along with the class notes written by each of the expositors. All the students received a diploma of the activity publicized. The Chapter appeared on two local television channels as they performed their experiments!
  
  Writes the Chapter, "We received 179 students we made impact directly on the high school studentship. We used the classrooms and laboratories of the school; also we work side to side with 4 high school teachers. This school was selected between 100 public school in the city, because is one of the most representative in the city."

• The University of New Mexico Student Chapter of OSA (located in Albuquerque , New Mexico ) had 500 people participate in the 2005 NWNM Regional Science & Engineering Fair that took place on March 17-19, 2005 at Johnson Center at University of New Mexico . The special judging event was on March 18. All four officers from the chapter attended as judges for the special awards from OSA. Through rigorous detail during the interview process, the officers decided the winning projects according to the criteria set. They received the awards recipients' information on March 25 from the organizer and made the certificates themselves and sent out the checks to the recipients on May 25, 2005. 
  
  The Chapter writes, "The participants may be more interested in optical science and engineering from the activity and the overall response is good. All the marketing efforts we did should raise the awareness from general participants - middle school and high school students and their parents and teachers of our organization; spread the OSA youth science education outreach message. This was the first time our chapter taking part in this event, overall is very successful. Hope we can continue getting support from OSA Foundation to participate this event in the future."