Photonics Classes in High School

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Making Holograms – An Educational CD-ROM
Authors: Pearl John and Elaine Poché

Light Express Coordinator, School of Physics and Astronomy, Southampton University, Southampton SO17 1BJ, UK and Photonics student at The Columbia Career Center, Columbia, Missouri, 65203, USA.

ABSTRACT

The Columbia Career Center high school SPIE chapter has created an educational CD-ROM to teach holography to students on the threshold of a career path in Photonics. This paper examines the development of the CD-ROM as an educational project from the perspectives of both teacher and student. Holography has been used successfully in educational institutions as a motivational tool for students and a vehicle for the teaching of a wide variety of skills. These include problem solving, teamwork, safety, communication, research, mathematics, analysis of data, documentation, equipment handling, and knowledge of light theory, which involves the principals of reflection, refraction, diffraction, interference and polarization. All of these skills are essential to the photonics industry and, as a result, holography is considered by the Center for Occupational Research and Development (CORD)1 to be a national photonics skill standard for Laser Electro-optical Technicians (LEOTs). Thus, training in holography – using both simple and advanced techniques and equipment – prepares students for a variety of vocations involving laser technology. However, the teaching of holography can be beneficial at many different levels of education, including middle and high school students, college students and interested adults.

The educational CD-ROM, “Making Holograms,” is the first of its kind. It includes both simple, single beam holography using a laser pointer, and more advanced split-beam setups using helium neon lasers. This paper outlines both the benefits and challenges involved in the production of an educational CD-ROM on holography by high school students and their advisor in an SPIE high school chapter.

Keyword List: holography education, holograms, photonics, LEOT, Columbia Career Center

1. INTRODUCTION

This paper, written by an SPIE student chapter advisor and student, discusses the benefits of teaching holography to students and hobbyists, explores the rationale for making a CD-ROM with Columbia Career Center’s high school SPIE student chapter members, argues that the benefits of creating a CD-ROM on how to make holograms as a teaching project outweighs the challenges, examines the strengths and weaknesses of the project from the perspectives of both teacher and student, and lastly explores the strengths and weaknesses of the product itself.

2. THE BENEFITS OF TEACHING HOLOGRAPHY

Why teach students holography? Professor Tung Jeong, on his Holokits website which can be found at: http://www.holokits.com/a-simple_holography.htm, explains some of the reasons:

“Holography is quickly becoming a favorite subject to teach in secondary and high schools, colleges, and trade schools. Some reasons for this include the fact that holography:

&Mac183; Introduces students to all major topics of modern optics: light propagation, interference, diffraction, polarization, scattering, and photochemistry.
&Mac183; Is a Nobel Prize winning discovery itself, and involves several other Nobel ideas, including those of Bragg, Lippman, and Michelson.
&Mac183; Has real-world applications, from its use on credit cards, passports, sunglasses, and art to grocery checkout counter devices, fighter pilot heads-up displays, industrial testing applications, and medical devices.
&Mac183; Is fun and actually quite easy to teach and learn! ….
&Mac183; Can be taught to an entire classroom economically (under $200)”.

In a testimonial to Shoebox Holography on Frank DeFreitas’ website found at: http://www.holoworld.com/holo/diode.html, communications technology educator Bill Pugh notes that students benefit from learning holography because:
“The Science, Math, and Technology they learn from the process become meaningful to them. It has also been useful to build teamwork in the classroom. I have been teaching for 23 years and this is the best classroom tool I have seen in years.”
Holography is beneficial to the teaching of a wide variety of skills. These skills include problem solving, teamwork, safety, communication, research, mathematics, analysis of data, documentation, equipment handling, and knowledge of light theory, which involves the principals of reflection, refraction, diffraction, interference and polarization. All of these skills are essential to the photonics industry and, as a result, holography is considered by the Center for Occupational Research and Development (CORD)1 to be a national photonics skill standard for Laser Electro-optical Technicians (LEOTs). The Columbia Career Center’s Photonics program is geared toward training students to become LEOTs.
Employers as well as educators recommend the making of holograms as a useful tool to teach new skills. For example, William J.Freed, President and CEO of FREEdLANCE Group, (a corporation that works to enhance quality-of-life by applying technology, modern management principles, and best practices to career and workforce development "systems" and programs) is quoted on the Shoebox Holography site as saying:
"Shoebox Holography has unique elements (beyond the revolutionary low-cost), that are sure to ignite the career aspirations of many, and open doors for career seekers to high demand science and technology occupations and industries.”
From our experience at the Columbia Career Center, one of the most important aspects of learning holography and making a hologram is that it gives the student something to walk away with in hand, physical proof of their newfound skill and knowledge. Students can show their peers or parents their achievements, reinforcing their confidence in their accomplishment.
3. PROJECT BACKGROUND

The Columbia Career Center’s Photonics Program bases much of its curriculum on holography, due to the strength of the medium as a motivational learning tool to improve student performance both practically and academically.

There is currently very little educational literature aimed specifically at young people with regard to making holograms. Notable exceptions can be found in Professor T.Jeong’s booklet, Laser Holography: Experiments You Can Do2, Fred Unterseher et al, the Holography Handbook: Making Holograms the Easy Way,3 and Graham Saxby’s book Practical Holography 4. In the last few years more information has become available to the student or hobbyist via the Internet, and while there are a number of helpful sites, such as the Shoebox holography http://www.holoworld.com/shoebox/index.html and Jeong’s own Holokits site www.holokits.com, there is currently no information available in the form of a CD-ROM. Since students can be somewhat adverse to the idea of picking up a book, but will jump at the opportunity for a computer ‘quick-fix’, a CD-ROM is a more effective educational tool. Some advantages include cheaper cost, inclusion of animated images, and sound.

3.1 Technological Developments

Since the publication of Jeong’s, Unterseher’s and Saxby’s books, the discovery has been made that holograms can be produced successfully using laser pointers. The use of a laser pointer has revolutionized the teaching of holography in the classroom. Teachers are now able to afford pointers rather than the more expensive helium neon lasers. Holograms can now be made inexpensively as a result not only of developments in laser technology, but also in holographic film technology and chemistry. While the Columbia Career Center SPIE student Chapter’s CD-ROM was being developed, Jeong published a new development/plate combination, which allowed for the production of many more holograms, more cheaply and easily than ever before. This information is available on his website at: http://www.holokits.com/a-teaching_holography.htm.5
Laser pointers, holographic plates and chemicals are now packaged in kits, and the plates sold in small numbers, making holography very affordable for teachers in the USA and the UK. There is now an enormous opportunity to increase the number of people learning and teaching photonics/optics using holography. In the UK holography can be used as an activity to teaching the physics behind light and optics while adhering to the National Curriculum for Physics at GCSE, AS and A’ level Physics.

During March 2003, the Columbia Career Center’s fifteen or so SPIE high school chapter members, in conjunction with the University of Missouri, ran a Saturday Science holography project. Forty-three holograms were made in two hours with approximately thirty 13-year-old students from local schools. Production of this quantity of holograms during an educational outreach activity would not have been possible without the chemical/plate combination recommended by Jeong in his paper.5
4. THE COLUMBIA CAREER CENTER’S SPIE HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT CHAPTER.
The SPIE high school student chapter at the Columbia Career Center was set up in recognition of the many benefits this instructor received from taking part in SPIE’s holography conferences as a student. The Chapter was set up in 1999 and was SPIE’s first high school student chapter.
The SPIE claims on its website 6 that:
“Affiliating with a student chapter--or forming a new one--broadens the possibilities for support that are available from SPIE for students. Through an SPIE chapter, students can enhance their academic experience and get a head start on their careers. SPIE has a strong commitment to serving students, and provides extensive support to student members and chapters through information exchange, financial assistance, and exposure to cutting-edge developments.”
The Career Center’s SPIE chapter has indeed found these claims to be true. Chapter activities have included: corresponding with other student chapters world-wide, publishing articles in SPIE’s OE Reports magazine7 and visiting colleges and other places of student interest. One chapter member Mike Walk, authored a paper on the use of holography in non-destructive testing of climbing equipment and presented it to an annual SPIE conference8. Other benefits of student chapter membership have included the funding of the CD-ROM project and the awarding of scholarships for a number of the members when they applied to College or University to study optics and photonics.

5. PRODUCING THE CD-ROM

There is a recognized world-wide shortage of skilled workers in the field of photonics and optics and the Career Center targets 15-16- year-old students in order to try to help combat the shortage. The Instructor recognized that holography could now be taught to vast numbers of students and hobbyists cheaply and easily with the help of the SPIE chapter members and their obvious enthusiasm for learning and teaching holography.

Having been through a problem based learning course at the Columbia Career Center the chapter advisor posed a question – outlining a real-life problem to the SPIE student High School Chapter - “there is a need to engage more people in photonics - holography is a good motivational tool and there are currently no CD-ROM’s available on making holograms, shall we make one?” The Chapter members agreed and the project began. However neither the Instructor or the SPIE chapter members really understood the magnitude of the undertaking. The SPIE student chapter met weekly for one and a half hours and had approximately 15 members. Producing the CD-ROM took three years and incorporated the work from about thirty student SPIE chapter members.

The production of the CD-ROM “Making Holograms” as an educational project had many benefits and drawbacks. The benefits included not only improvements in the students’ knowledge of holography, but also in their practical holography skills, research skills, documentation and organizational skills, and many other skills as outlined below. The project also had many drawbacks which are also discussed.

5.1 Enrichment of students’ practical holography skills and knowledge

The immersion of the students in holography contributed to the enrichment and rounding out of the students’ knowledge of the subject matter. Previously, some students were more adept at, say, setting up the equipment and working on the beam ratios while others were quite efficient with chemistry mixing. The creation of the CD-ROM enabled all of the students working on the project to ‘fill in the blanks’ where their own knowledge was lacking.

The students’ learning was also enriched by having to teach the subject that they themselves had learned. Teaching a subject is in fact the best way to learn it. Students experienced working in a team to complete a project that would have a real outcome and meet professional standards.

5.2 Research Skills

The students used the Internet, books, articles in journals and magazines and communicated with holographers and other educators in order to complete their research for the CD-ROM project. Many students were introduced to scientific articles and journals for the first time. Other students contacted companies and individuals for information when they previously would have been too nervous to do so, raising their confidence and self-esteem.

The project gave all the participating students the opportunity to publish their own work at a very young age, which should be very impressive to prospective employers and institutions of higher education when the students apply for jobs or places at college or University.

5.3 Organizational Skills

One of the greatest benefits to the students was learning how to organize both themselves and the project to ensure the CD-ROM’s completion. Most of the chapter member’s time was taken up in organizing previously compiled drafts of the project by other students. Students failed to leave clear instructions for each other and multiple copies of old information on several computers had to be organized onto one computer and then carefully reviewed as to not leave out any detail. Students contributed to the best of their abilities and then passed the torch until another motivated student came along. While the goal of completing the CD-ROM was reached, the accomplishment did not come without its fair share of frustrations and disappointments.

A task of such enormity required superior communication and teamwork. Attempting to summarize the process of holography was daunting, requiring that a wealth of information be processed, edited and re-written so that a person who knew nothing about holography could create a hologram using the CD-ROM for guidance.

Students learned to speak openly and efficiently with each other to communicate their ideas, and in the process gained each other’s trust and respect. When time management became the greatest problem, the delegation of tasks was accomplished easily. The students had become so enthralled with the topic at this point that even the assignment of sorting through three manuals to verse themselves on equipment previously unknown to them was accepted with a smile. Rather than having a single leader, the students took turns in leadership roles.

From the Instructor’s perspective it became clear working with the students, who among them was able to be consistent, reliable and hardworking. The Instructor had to model consistency, reliability and dedication with regard to completing the project. It really was a team effort, however and the Instructor had to rely on students completing their work in a similar way to relying on professional workers, even though the students were not paid for their work. Issues such as turning up on time, following through with promises and meeting deadlines had to be discussed as part of the project. These issues were an important element of the project from an educational perspective as workplace reliability is considered a goal for vocational education.

Time management became the greatest obstacle to success towards the end of the project. When the summer term began, the Chapter Advisor announced that she was leaving the Career Center to return to the UK. Dedicated students devoted entire days to ensure the project’s completion throughout the summer term. A typical workday included a general meeting to brief all present on the list of chores at hand and refresh one another on the day’s storyboard. Then, students scattered in different directions to complete their tasks, meeting a designated number of hours later to share their work or ask for help. Teamwork flourished in these sessions, when one student stumbled, another was there to help pick him or her up and help out.

5.4 Creative Skills

The SPIE student chapter members learned skills that were outside the scope of their Photonics curriculum. This was an added benefit to the project. The students decided that the CD-ROM needed to include photographs, drawings and explanations of holography setups. The CD-ROM project therefore required working with video and photography equipment, such as cameras, recording and lighting equipment. Students learned elements of script writing, storyboarding, and CD-ROM production using Director, as part of the project. The students also worked with a musician and a graphic designer/CD-ROM designer. The students had been required by their instructors to keep detailed log books documenting their work during the Photonics courses and these log books became an invaluable tool for helping them describe to others how to make holograms. Students therefore improved their communication skills – through writing, drawing and explaining their ideas to each other with regard to teaching others to make holograms.

5.5 Benefits to the Student SPIE Chapter Advisor

The CD-ROM provided an excellent focus for the SPIE student chapter and was a valuable learning experience for both the students and the Advisor. Extra curricula activities are always beneficial to the instructor as they improve instructor/student relationships and this project was no exception. The students earned the instructor’s respect and admiration, through their dedication and enthusiasm for what was really too large a task for the chapter to complete easily.

5.6 Audience Benefits

It is hoped that the audience for the CD-ROM will benefit in many ways. The CD-ROM is created by students for students. It presents information in an attractive medium to the target age group, is simple to use and straightforward to understand. The CD-ROM was produced by the team for under one thousand dollars with two grants from the SPIE of 500 dollars over two years and was intended for educational use – and as such it is hoped that it will be sold at a low cost with the result that it may reach and be useful to many more students and enthusiasts than if it were a commercial product. Two educators have expressed an interest in distributing the CD-ROM once it is mass-produced.

6. PROJECT EVALUATION

6.1 The Successes

The proposed goal of the students, which was to complete the CD-ROM, was accomplished. The completion of the project was an enormous achievement. There were many benefits in completing the project however, the true measure of success will be if others gain knowledge from our efforts and find the CD-ROM beneficial.

6.2 Challenges

The project was perhaps too ambitious an educational activity and in retrospect the chapter advisor would not recommend that others take on a project that takes more than a year to complete with a chapter of high school students. The advisor completely underestimated the time and the effort that completion of the CD-ROM would take at the start of the project. It became increasingly difficult to continue motivating students when it became obvious that the project could not be completed by one team in one year. Students aged 15-17 found such a long-term goal difficult to grasp. Most student members did not stay on board with the project – they contributed their piece then left, however they remained enthusiastic to see the project completed. The project ran on after the end of the student’s term and required both the students, and their advisor to continuing working on into the summer vacation. Had it not been for the exceptional dedication of a small number of chapter members – the project would not have been completed before the advisor left the country and took on her new position working at Southampton University as Light Express Coordinator, continuing her work as a Photonics educator.

7. CD-ROM CONTENT

7.1 Strengths

The “Making Holograms” CD-ROM covers the following topics – safety, trouble-shooting/problem solving, documentation, equipment and techniques used in reflection, transmission, single-beam and split beam holography. The CD-ROM describes both the setting up of equipment, exposure of the hologram and development techniques. It also covers the light theory and physics behind holography in the ‘About’ section, discuss applications of holography and touches on the history of holography. It is hoped that users of the CD-ROM will themselves learn skills including: problem solving, teamwork (if working with others), safety, communication, research, mathematics, analysis of data, documentation, equipment handling, and knowledge of light theory, involving the principals of reflection, refraction, diffraction, interference and polarization.

“Making Holograms” is user-friendly, written for students, by students. How much closer to the target audience can one get than by having authors in the same age group as their audience? Most educational tools aimed at the younger generation lack important visual stimulation. The inclusion of text and a multitude of pictures retain the viewer much longer than the normal black and white text infused with vocabulary intended for a veteran audience. “Making Holograms” also included original music by one of the Introduction to Laser Technology students – the music was intended to appeal to our target audience.

The teaching of holography using the CD-ROM can be beneficial to students of all ages, not just high school aged students. It is hoped that the language, visual and audio design of the CD-ROM will be appealing to all.

7.2 Weaknesses

The CD-ROM mostly reflects the training in holography that students were given at the Columbia Career Center during their Introduction to Laser Technology, Photonics I and Photonics II classes. Because there were limitations on the amount of holography that the students learned during their classes, the CD-ROM is limited. It can be said to be too much of a ‘cookbook’ when there are thousands of variations in making holograms. The CD-ROM outlines a generally accepted manner of creating holograms suitable for a novice or even first-timer, but goes into little detail on variations in set-up or substitutions in equipment. This task is left to the viewer who is provided with a number of reference materials to take them further.

Also, while the quality of the information on the CD-ROM is noteworthy, the quantity of information is slightly lacking. Because of time constraints, many forms of holography and more obscure or challenging concepts were omitted from the CD-ROM, rendering it a useful tool for beginners, but common knowledge for amateurs. However, upon reflection, the simplicity of “Making Holograms” may be one of the strengths given that a landslide of information might inundate and confuse a beginner, while basic training is much easier to follow.

7.3 Opportunities

The Columbia Career Center SPIE student chapter members now have the opportunity to engage in dialogue with their audience should they and their new chapter advisor chose to do so. The opportunity to create a supporting website exists as a result of producing the CD-ROM, to add further information, techniques or skills that were omitted from the CD-ROM. It might also be beneficial to provide a forum for questions and discussion as a result of any questions that the CD-ROM users might have. Producing a supporting website may also be valuable to the SPIE Chapter – helping to improve communication skills, holography skills and ensuring that each new year of chapter members continue to benefit from the project.

8. CONCLUSION

It is hoped that the production of the CD-ROM “Making Holograms” has profoundly influenced the student members of the Columbia Career Center’s high school SPIE chapter. The experience of learning and passing on skills such as: problem solving, teamwork, safety, communication, research, mathematics, analysis of data, documentation, equipment handling, and knowledge of light theory, will have helped to prepare the students for working in the photonics industry. There is an international shortage of skilled workers in the fields of optics and photonics. We hope that through the development of our CD-ROM project we will help inspire a wider audience, particularly young people, to pursue careers in optics and photonics.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The Authors wish to thank the following people for their support: Members of the SPIE Student Chapter 1999-2003, Columbia Career Center Laser Instructors - Richard Shanks and Fred Unterseher, Dr. Tung Jeong Professor Emeritus, Lake Forest College, Illinois. Graham Saxby, Becky Deem, Cassie Tompkins, Mrs. Tompkins, Mr. & Mrs. Poché, Dr. Arden Boyer-Stephens, Dr. Don Bristow, Members of the Staff at the Columbia Career Center and Professor Anne Tropper, University of Southampton, UK.

REFERENCES

1. CORD, National Photonics Skills Standards, Photonics Spectra, Pittsfield. Mass., 1995.

2. Tung H. Jeong, Laser Holography: Experiments You Can Do… From Edison, Thomas Alva Edison Foundation, Incorporated, 1987.

3. Fred Unterseher,, Jeannene Hansen, Bob Schlesinger, Holography Handbook: Making Holograms the Easy Way, Ross Books Berkeley, 1982.

4. Graham Saxby, Practical Holography, Prentice Hall International (UK) Ltd, New York, 1988.Frank DeFreitas, Alan Rhody, and Steve Michael, Shoebox holography - Inexpensive Semiconductor Diode Lasers, Ross Books, Berkeley,

5. T. H. Jeong, Riley Aumiller, Raymond Ro, and Jeff Blythe “Teaching Holography in Classrooms” Making Holograms with PFG-03 Plates with JD-4” http://www.holokits.com/a-teaching_holography.htm

6. SPIE Student Chapter Information December 2003 http://www.spie.org/Membership/index.cfm?fuseaction=StudentChapters

7. P.John and E.Poché, “Making holograms in the Classroom: OE Reports , April 2002.
http://oemagazine.com/fromTheMagazine/apr02/edu.html

8. M.A.Walk, “Strain/Displacement of a Carabina via Interferometry”, Proceedings of SPIE, pp.409, SPIE, Bellingham, WA, 2000.

Return to Holography Classes

Papers:

Making Holograms – An Educational CD-ROM by Pearl John and Elaine Poché

Advanced Holography in High School by Pearl John

Photonics Classes in High School by Pearl John and Richard Shanks

Making Holograms, Uniting Art and Science by Pearl John

Laser Safety in the High School Classroom by Pearl John and Richard Shanks, Meadow Woodbury, Kennie Canole & Renée Holtzhauser.

Words and images in time and space: An exploration of the
use of text in fine-art holography, by Pearl John.