Contribution: A do-it-yourself (DIY) light wave sensing (LWS) and communication project was developed to generate interest and clarify basic electromagnetic (EM) and wireless sensing/communication concepts among students at different education levels from middle school to undergraduate. This article demonstrates the nature of the project and its preliminary effectiveness. Background: Concepts in wireless sensing and communication are generally considered hard to comprehend being underpinned only by theoretical coursework and occasional simulations. Further, K–12 schools and small academic institutions may not have the resources necessary to produce tangible demonstrations for clarification. The consequent lack of affordable hands-on experiences fails to motivate and engage students. Intended Outcomes: The DIY-LWS is intended to make wireless concepts more understandable and less esoteric by linking fundamental concepts with student-relevant technologies, such as solar cells, visible lights, and smartphones. It is also intended to pique student interest by allowing them to personally assemble, operate, and explore a light-based wireless communication system. Students complete assessments before and after the project to quantify its effectiveness. Application Design: A preliminary assessment is used to determine the student base knowledge level and enthusiasm for wireless and related core topics. Students are instructed to assemble and test their own DIY-LWS hardware to provide a hands-on experience and stimulate further exploration. Short lectures are given to link conceptual ideas to the real-world phenomena students personally observed. Finally, students are reassessed to quantify any change in conceptual understanding. Findings: The DIY-LWS kits have been used in multiple events with students at different levels from secondary to high schools to college. As part of a triangulated assessment methodology, pre- and post-assessments revealed pronounced improvements (the number of correct answers doubled) in student understanding of EM concepts. Instructors observed tremendous interest and excitement among the students during and after the experiments.

中文翻译：

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一个自己动手 (DIY) 的光波传感和通信项目：低成本、便携、有效和有趣

贡献：开发了一个自己动手 (DIY) 光波传感 (LWS) 和通信项目，以引起从中学到本科不同教育水平的学生的兴趣并阐明基本的电磁 (EM) 和无线传感/通信概念。本文展示了该项目的性质及其初步有效性。背景：无线传感和通信中的概念通常被认为难以理解，仅靠理论课程和偶尔的模拟。此外，K-12 学校和小型学术机构可能没有必要的资源来制作有形的演示以进行澄清。因此缺乏负担得起的实践经验无法激励和吸引学生。预期成果：DIY-LWS 旨在通过将基本概念与学生相关技术（如太阳能电池、可见光和智能手机）联系起来，使无线概念更容易理解，更不深奥。它还旨在通过让学生亲自组装、操作和探索基于光的无线通信系统来激发学生的兴趣。学生在项目前后完成评估以量化其有效性。应用设计：初步评估用于确定学生基础知识水平和对无线及相关核心主题的热情。指导学生组装和测试他们自己的 DIY-LWS 硬件，以提供动手体验并激发进一步探索。提供简短的讲座，将概念想法与学生亲自观察到的现实世界现象联系起来。最后，重新评估学生以量化概念理解的任何变化。发现：DIY-LWS 套件已在多个活动中用于从中学到高中到大学的不同级别的学生。作为三角评估方法的一部分，前评估和后评估显示学生对 EM 概念的理解有明显改善（正确答案的数量翻了一番）。教师们在实验过程中和实验后都观察到学生们的极大兴趣和兴奋。