Playing with light: A game based approach to learn photonics in fablabs

FabLabs and Photonics are two important ingredients of the so called 4th Industrial Revolution (Industria 4.0). Photonics concerns the capability to manipulate light at the level of single photons, Fablabs are small "Fabrication Laboratories" based on digital fabrication technologies such as 3D printers and laser cut machines, an idea born at MIT in 2002 that is experiencing an exponential growth in the world. The current European Project "Phablabs 4.0" aims to exploit the potentialities of the network of European FabLabs for dissemination and awareness raising in photonics and in the new digital fabrication technologies with a Game Based Learning and hands-on approach. In this ambit, we consider "Playing with light", a format for a series of workshops for high school students organized in Italy by IFN-CNR and hosted in different FabLabs. In such workshops the students, after an introduction on photonics and digital fabrication, are directly involved in the realization of a small kit for the exploration of the properties of light, made by laser cut in Plexiglas sheets. The kit is used for different activities with the help of a low power laser pointer: (a) a series of free explorations of the basic properties of light and optics such as reflection, refraction and total internal reflection; (b) a "photonics billiard" board game to play with these properties; (c) a series of more quantitative laboratory experiences for testing the Snell's law and for measuring the refractive index of plexiglas. We present the results of this experience and discuss potentialities and issues.