We had a brilliant day at Larne Grammar School delivering a STEM Workshop on Photonics on Friday 31 May 2024. As part of Mid and East Antrim Borough Council's Activate Your Curiosity incentive.
Year 9s had the opportunity to chat with Yelo's Optical Physicist, Dr Katie Cavanagh about her role/career and the R&D project she is involved with Smart Nano NI. The pupils had a quick overview of the photonics they use every day without knowing and an insight into future technologies.
The three groups had the opportunity to participate in:
- Laser Target - the most popular and competitive activity. A steady hand and good eye coordination were needed for this activity... Mr Wylie (Headmaster) and Mrs Hill(Bursar) were very serious when trying this activity.. lucky we didn’t have a prize for the best shot for this workshop
- Laser Maze – pupils had to guide a laser around a maze using mirrors and optics – precision was key to achieving success
- Look at how prisms transfer light using LED pointers and mini-torches
- Object recognition - how the face scanner works on your mobile device
- Using a microscope to look at nanostructures.
A huge thank you to Larne Grammar School for allowing us to come in and deliver a Photonics workshop to their Year 9s. Hopefully, we have inspired some of them to look at engineering is a great career option and also think about what photonics they each use everyday and the impact they have.
