Hands-On Optics (HOO): Making an Impact with Light                           A Partnership for the Future of Optics Education and Career Awareness

SPIE Mission Education is a cornerstone of SPIE’s Mission: to serve the international technical community by providing education, information, and resources covering optics, photonics, and their applications. HOO’s unique partnership model—linking industry, educators, students, and optics volunteers—builds upon Society strengths.

OSA Mission The Society’s mission is built around education and learning HOO enables the furthering of this mission in an underrepresented, critical population

Why Collaborate? From Optics Education: A Blueprint for the 21st Century: Optics is noticeably absent from education SPIE & OSA must collaborate to create meaningful, long-lasting change Leverage resources, members, volunteers, and alliances to achieve goals Use optics to generate interest in science Focus on underserved populations to build competitive advantage

How to Proceed? History of collaboration Organizational merger  joint educational activities: Education cuts across all boundaries Seek experts, service providers with matching goals, objectives MESA NOAO

What to Do? Develop an Education action-oriented plan Active society leadership as mandated by the leadership and Blueprint workshops Develop trust among partners Frequent communication Develop common goals and objectives

What to Do? Recognize Resources Play to strengths MESA helped societies see the volunteer base as a primary resource in education Play to strengths Choose educational path – Informal education

Who Does What? Identify roles and responsibilities based on strengths, resources OSA and SPIE strengths lie in volunteer base MESA has captive target audience NOAO has the experience with curriculum and professional development “Give and take”

HOO Program Highlights Audiences Students underserved populations in science and engineering, middle-school aged females and minorities Parents, Teachers, Volunteers Strategy Conduct hands-on activity modules, training parents, teachers and volunteers to lead activities, ultimately educating both audiences

HOO Program Highlights Meaningful impact on tens of thousands of students nationwide Recognition of optics technology and its impact on daily life Career awareness Inspiration to the next generation of optics professionals

Lessons Learned Trust, don’t compete with, your partners Include experts from the beginning – funding agencies, outreach expert, writer Clearly separate duties and responsibilities in the joint program from the beginning Collaboration creates the critical mass which yields attention from funding agencies and program impact

Lessons Learned Long-term support Necessary financial resources for building the foundation for a partnership and program Total commitment from leadership and membership Sustainability Strong evaluation plan as a resource