Low-cost optical home-lab experiments

Low-cost experiments have the advantage of being affordable to schools, universities, and families. In the particular case of optics, these experiments can be important to help students understand the properties of light and optical phenomena. In this article, we demonstrate optical experiments to be carried out at home by students learning remotely. These experiments were designed and performed at the 16th Summer School in Physics, which is a five-day activity for high school students organized by the University of Porto. This activity was organized remotely, with all lectures and activities being performed through video conferencing. The materials needed for the proposed experiments were sent by post to students before the beginning of school. The students were able to build optical experiments from scratch, perform measurements, analyse data and present their findings on the last day of the school in a public session dedicated to online presentations.