Teacher: Niek Slooter
(Read more about his biography here)
Dates for 4-week course:
February 23 to March 20, 2026
Times for Live Sessions:
Monday through Thursday, Starting at 9:15am MT (which is 11:15am ET and 8:15am PT). Each live session lasts between 50 and 70 minutes. On Friday at 9:15am MT there will be student group meetings.
Course Description
Grade 11 and 12 Optics presents fundamental principles governing the physical world by combining theoretical concepts, hands-on experiments, and rich small group discussions. Students will engage in many experiments with light, imaging, refraction, reflection, and color phenomena to observe, experience, and understand the concepts of optics. This will include attempting to understand the nature of light and its interactions with matter. We begin by observing and identifying visual phenomena available in everyday experiences to cultivate curiosity and reinforce the concepts of why and how we see or do not see daily visible and invisible phenomena. The outcome of these experiments and observations will solidify theoretical knowledge into laws and formulas that explain and predict various aspects of optics.
Traditional optics lessons include reflection, refraction, total internal reflection, fiber optics, color phenomena, rainbows, imaging (lenses), shadows, and diffraction. We will also explore more complex topics such as the wave/particle duality, and possibly an introduction to relativity theory and quantum theory.
Additionally, our class will thoroughly examine perception and meet each phenomenon with questions like: What is real? Do we see the same? How do you know? These questions will form the basis for some philosophical conversations about the nature of science and reality. Collaborative discussions bring to consciousness the reasons for pursuing physical science in a phenomenological way. This approach necessitates real, cohesive discussions in class and enhances curiosity, striving, and meeting the world with openness and willingness to think.
If you register your student for a science program and live outside the US, we will send you an invoice for an additional $30-$50 for your science kit shipping, depending on your location.
