The Columbia Section is currently examining a number of venues for educational outreach.  Joel Johnson and Tom Plant had a table at the Oregon Science Teachers Association meeting in October and were able to speak with a large number of teachers.  Twenty two Middle School and eight High School teachers were interested in receiving follow up information. 

High school teachers, with the exception of two or three, indicated that the high school curriculum is pretty full, optics is not part of the standardized testing and the topic occurs at the very end of the school year which makes it a prime candidate for bumping.

Middle school teachers appear to have more flexibility and were quite open to adding optical materials to their curricula.  The materials should be of the "gee whiz" type, with the purpose being to inspire an interest in the subject as opposed to becoming part of the established curricula.

Joel Johnson has also had a meeting with three members of OMSI's staff, which offers a single, 55 minute class in optics and holography as well as a summer camp in astronomy.  The grade level appears to be from Grade School through Junior High.  The astronomy summer camp would be interested in having participants build their own telescope from a box of lenses.  This could lead to discovery if none of the lenses were the same and  the students had to puzzle about why the telescopes had varying magnification, sizes and image quality.  The optics and holography lab could use volunteers and help in increasing the scope of their offerings.