LightUp Your World Workshop Series

Photonics, the science of light, is an enabling technology which underpins a wide range of application areas, from internet and medical imaging to environmental monitoring and food production. However, this ‘behind the scenes’ nature means that the public, and schoolchildren in particular, are often unaware of the full importance, impact and possibilities of photonics. The ultimate aim of the ‘LightUp Your World’ Workshop Series is to establish a toolkit and resources so that photonics researchers can, with minimal additional training, deliver workshops communicating the relevance of photonics in different application areas. By using a modular approach, the content can be rapidly and easily adapted to different age groups and audience knowledge levels.
Within the scope of this Discover project, a series of four Workshops will be co-designed in collaboration with physics teachers from four schools (all-male, all-female, mixed and DEIS). Each workshop will focus on how photonics contributes to a particular societal challenge, e.g. ‘LightUp the Environment’, ‘LightUp Food Production’, ‘LightUp Healthcare’. Following the co-design, content creation and presenter training phases, the workshops will be delivered to transition year students at the four schools, as an initial assessment trial in Q4 2023. Building on this groundwork established by the project, it is envisaged that the content and number of stakeholders will be subsequently expanded, to ultimately form a comprehensive suite of outreach tools for photonics researchers to effectively communicate with a wide range of audiences.