Course Outline

Class 1: Introduction, Properties of Light............................................................................................................ 8 / 26,27
Class 2:  History of Glass, Basic Optics................................................................................................................ 9 / 2,3
Class 3: Vision............................................................................................................................................................ 9 / 9,10
Class 4: Early Art and Optical Devices................................................................................................................. 9 / 16,17
Class 5: Color.............................................................................................................................................................. 9 / 23,24
Class 6: The Microscope.......................................................................................................................................... 9 / 30, 10/1
Class 7: The Telescope ........................................................................................................................................... 10 / 7,8
Class 8: Tour of the Large Mirror Lab (Research Paper Topics due)........................................................... 10 / 14,15
Class 9: Photography .............................................................................................................................................. 10 / 21,22
Class 10: Pinhole Cameras ...................................................................................................................................... 10 / 28,29
Class 11: The Laser  (Research Papers Due)....................................................................................................... 11 / 4,5
Class 12: Beyond the Visible--Ultraviolet and Infrared  .................................................................................... 11 / 11,12
Class 13: Optical Communications (Multi-media Topics Due).......................................................................... 11 / 18,19
NO CLASS THANKSGIVING......................................................................................................................................... 11 / 25,26
Class 14: Current Research in Optics--"The Next Revolution"........................................................................ 12 / 2,3
     
Multi-media Presentations DUE by 5pm..............................................................................................Friday, Dec. 10
FINAL EXAM for Thursday, sec. 8 (Multi-media Presentations to the class).............................Thursday, Dec. 16 (2-4pm)
FINAL EXAM for Friday, sec. 9 (Multi-media Presentations to the class)....................................Friday, Dec. 17 (11am-1pm)

 

GRADING CRITERIA:

Research Paper                            40%
Data Mining via the Internet          20%
Multi-media Presentation              30%
Class Attendance                          10%

 

Useful Resources on the Web:
Laser Focus World
Photonics Spectra


OSA        (Optical Society of America)
TSOSA    (Tucson Section of the Optical Society of America--our student optics organization)
SPIE        (The International Society for Optical Engineering)