New Tool Helps Minn. Students Understand Laser Technology

Updated: 05/04/2013 9:34 AM By: Beth McDonough

Minnesotans like to be on the leading edge of technology. 

One woman certainly is. Colette DeHarpporte, created a project called, Laser Blox.  They're lasers designed to be used in classrooms.

It's a unique, new approach, to get students interest in lasers.  

Laser Blox is magnetically stacked to create a ray box for studying optics.  The lasers come in three visible wavelengths we call colors:  red, green and violet. 

The goal of the tool is to change how teachers teach laser technology and change how students learn.

Morgan Block is in high school, "I didn't really know that lasers can do what they do."

The Science Museum in St. Paul has 63 Laser Blox. 

They're demonstrated first by teachers, then students are asked to do it themselves. 

The staff points out how important lasers are in everyday life, "certainly there are a lot of jobs in lasers, photonics, optics area involving this new technology." 

DeHarpporte said, "This gives us a chance to actually show the behavior of light, so we can see how it bends, how it bounces, how it reacts with different materials, so it's made to make it engaging, exciting, visual."

The hope is that by playing with lasers in class, it'll lead to more people working with them one day too.