PRINCIPLES OF PHYSICAL OPTICS OptoSci's ED-OPTICS educator kit consists of four separate modules (polarisation, reflection and refraction, diffraction, interference and coherence) which enable students to experimentally investigate and acquire practical familiarity with the fundamentals of physical optics and the wave properties of light. The experimental investigation addresses the following issues: POL: Malus's law; measurement of the state of polarisation; properties of half, quarter and arbitrary wave plates (Stokes parameters, the polarisation ellipse and the Poincaré sphere); strain birefringence and its application to strain sensing R&R: Reflection and refraction; Snell's Law; Fresnel relationships; Brewster's angle, critical angle and TIR; determination of the refractive index of an optical element DIFF: Fraunhofer and Fresnel diffraction of apertures and slits; measurement of the width of unknown slits and apertures; diffraction at a reflective grating; determination of the wavelength of a laser; diffraction through a transmission grating. I&C: The Michelson interferometer; multiple and single fringe alignment configurations; fringe visibility; examination of optical elements; source coherence function; measurement of coherence length and cavity length of Fabry-Perot laser