1. Introduction Prior to going on to higher education most physics students in the UK are generally aware of the laws of reflection, refraction and total internal reflection, but in our experience have little practical experience, and we have found that including a couple of elementary experiments on this topic in the first year laboratory forms a worthwhile introduction to a set of linked experiments on geometric optics which are synchronised with lectures on this topic. With linked experiments all students in groups of up to 18 students perform the same experiment individually, and at the same time, so that a corresponding number of sets of apparatus is required. Whereas suitable apparatus for studying the basic laws of optics is readily available commercially, for the number required we have found it cost effective to make our own. Details are given in the following section.