Online Resources

SPIE has assembled this list of websites containing lesson plans, activities, demonstrations and free materials to provide teaching resources for educators. Use these resources to bring the excitement of optics into your classroom!

• NSDL The National Science Digital Library
• National Engineers Week Foundation. Find programs designed to reach ou to current and future generations of engineering talent.  
• Cascade Pass - Publisher of a book series encouraging young girls in the sciences
• GT Labs. Comics that tell true stories about scientists.
• Newport Glass Works Education Kits Educational kits that teach beginners how to make their own scopes.
• Exploring Careers in Lasers, Photonics, and Holography. Career aadvice from the HoloWorld website.
• HoloWorld All you want to know about holograms.
• The Exploratorium The museum of science, art and human perception.
• The Exploratorium Science Snacks, Snacks about Light
• MIT Holography Museum The collection contains works representing the artistic and technical evolution of the medium, created by some of the world's foremost holographers.
• Science Made Simple - Beyond The Rainbow - The Invisible World
• Girl Scouts GirlsGoTech project
• TeachEngineering.com - Browse standards based K-12 curriculum modules
• Little Shop of Physics! Colorado State University's hands-on science outreach program
• scienceworks
• Engineer, Go For It!
• Math Moves U. Raytheon's MathMovesU is an innovative program designed to engage middle school students with math when their interest in the subject typically declines.
• Cool Science for Curious Kids
• Physics Quest, a middle school competition that consists of four physical experiments centered on a mystery.
• Engineering is Elementary (EiE), the EiE program aims to foster engineering and technological literacy among children.
• Bright Future, a card game about sustainability
• Science News for kids
• Brain Cake, For girls 11 - 17 and their parents, teachers and mentors.
• Try Science is your gateway to experience the excitment of contemporary science and technology though on and offline interactivity with science and technology centers worldwide.
• Making Science Make Sense, Bayer Corp. sponsored STEM education website.
• Sally Ride Science, From astrobiology to zoology-Sally Ride Science is all science, all the time.
• Canon Science Lab, What is Light?
• Kindergarten-lessons, Light Science Activities for Kids
• Kids' Science Challenge, a annual competition for 3rd to 6th graders to submit experiments and problems for REAL scientists and engineers to solve.
• Exploring the Science of Light
• Optics for Kids The Science and Enginerring Behind It

Video

• When Things Get Small
• Dragon Fly TV - Light and Color
• Design Squad

PDFs 

• Laser Fountain Demonstration
• Laser Microphone Demonstration
  

Educators

• NSTA Communities (Member only) This website brings together science education professionals to interact, mingle, share activities and resources, form groups, offer advice, and get help from the community members.
• Teacher' Domain. Digital Media for the Classroom and Professional Development
• Introduction to Photonics, Online cources for educators
• PHOTON2, Introduction to Photonics for Teachers
• Teaching Materials, from NASA Spacelink
• Bibliography of Classical Optics (Approx. 1500 titles, 1980-1993, in PDF format 230K, compiled by Douglas Goodman, Polaroid Corp.)
• Integrated Teaching and Learning Program, Univesity of Coloratdo at Boulder
• National Science Teachers Association
• Center for the Advancement of Engineering Education
• Photonics for Breakfast, A 6-week course for people interested in science and its impact on our lives.

General Education

• Edutopia