Thanks to the IYL Young Minds Grant the GOC YM Section created an optical tournament where students from a High School enjoyed with the first contact with the light science. Public learned about general concepts of optics such as reflection, transmission, light guides, fluorescence and absorption and they did it in a funny way. More details and pictures can be found in the section webpage.
It was a succesful event that took place on Thursday 17th of Desember at the gym of the Torreblanca High School. We started at 8:30h in the morning and we finished at 15:00h and we performed the different games with more than 100 pupils of the High School.
As planned, the tournament consisted in different separated events where participants had to overcome different tests. The participants were organized in groups. Each group stayed 10 minutes at each stage. After this time, the groups had to rotate between all the different stages until each one has passed one time per stage. There was a minimum and maximum punctuation for each stage. Depending on the group performance they obtained a determinate number of points. At the end of the day, the group of students with a higher score received a christmas price.
Funds were used to buy the materials needed to perform the optical contest. We bought laser sources, mirrors, optical materials to build optical puzzles (polarizers, gratins, sensors), an smoking machine, metallic basis in order to build the optical golf and the laser maze. Also, some of the budget was spent in buying little prizes for the winners of the contest. At last, a little part of the budget was spent in the trip to the high-school in the area near our city in order to perform the contest.
Now that we have all activities prepared and all material we need, we will repeat the contest with the high schools that demand it and also in other context.