STEM Optics Workshop, 24 May 2025, Lake Haven NSW

In this interactive Optics workshop, you will learn to appreciate the magic of colour, mirrors, and shadows through the eyes of a child and explore the pedagogy behind developing child-led inquiry projects in your service or classroom.

This 3.5-hour professional development workshop will give you the confidence to unlock the wonders of STEM in your service through the gateway of optics, develop and facilitate project work, and is a great workshop for educators who are both new and experienced in delivering STEM in early childhood settings.

In this hands-on workshop, you will learn how to create rich STEM learning experiences and use optics as a topic through which to teach the outcomes of the Early Years Learning Framework. Interactive activities can include:

• Split sunlight in different ways and make rainbows with crystals, soap bubbles, and CDs.
• Follow, catch, and trap your shadow.
• See how far you can “transport” light throughout a dark room.
• Explore reflections in everyday life and discover why some reflections are distorted, magnified, shrunk or even upside down.
• Make your own spying device.
• Build a shadow theatre and play with puppets.
• Investigate the connections between three dimensional objects, their shadows, and make your own sundial.
• Find out how to create and mix different colours of lights.
• Mix colours into brown, and then try unmixing them.
• Learn about binocular rivalry and test your own peripheral vision.

Learn more or register here.