Education
Teaching Green Photonics
Try these simple experiments to demonstrate how white light can be converted into energy by a solar panel and back to visible light through an LED.
Materials for diffraction grating glasses.
Teachers are always looking for ways to bring science to life for their students. The more our young people can see the relevance of what we do as scientists, the more interested they become in discovering how the world works. That is why my colleagues and I developed a low-cost, hands-on outreach program to teach students about modern energy issues, or “green” photonics.
This demonstration is designed for students in grades three through twelve. We use a solar panel, LEDs and diffraction grating glasses to demonstrate how sunlight or incandescent lamp light is converted into energy by the solar panel and then back to visible light through the LED. Students also learn how wavelengths correspond to different colors in the visible spectrum.
Here’s a guide to conducting the experiments.
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