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Exploring Quantum Reversibility with Young Learners

Published: 07 August 2020 Publication History

Abstract

Quantum computing is poised to revolutionize some critical intractable computing problems; but to fully take advantage of this computation, computer scientists will need to learn to program in a new way, with new constraints. The challenge in developing a quantum computing curriculum for younger learners is that two dominant approaches, teaching via the underlying quantum physical phenomenon or the mathematical operations that emerge from those phenomenon, require extensive technical knowledge. Our goal is to extract some of the essential insights in the principles of quantum computing and present them in contexts that a broad audience can understand.
In this study, we explore how to teach the concept of quantum reversibility. Our interdisciplinary science, science education, computer science education, and computer science team is co-creating quantum computing (QC) learning trajectories (LT), educational materials, and activities for young learners. We present a draft LT for reversibility, the materials that both influenced it and were influenced by it, as well as an analysis of student work and a revised LT. We find that for clear cases, many 8-9 year old students understand reversibility in ways that align with quantum computation. However, when there are less clear-cut cases, students show a level of sophistication in their argumentation that aligns with the rules of reversibility for quantum computing even when their decisions do not match. In particular, students did not utilize the idea of a closed system, analyzing the effects to every item in the system. This blurred the distinction between between reversing (undoing) an action, recycling to reproduce identical items with some of the same materials, or replacing used items with new ones. In addition, some students allowed for not restoring all aspects of the original items, just the ones critical to their core functionality. We then present a revised learning trajectory that incorporates these concepts.

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cover image ACM Conferences
ICER '20: Proceedings of the 2020 ACM Conference on International Computing Education Research
August 2020
364 pages
ISBN:9781450370929
DOI:10.1145/3372782
Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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Publication History

Published: 07 August 2020

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Author Tags

  1. k-12 education
  2. learning trajectory
  3. quantum computing

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  • Research-article

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  • National Science Foundation

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ICER '20
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ICER '20: International Computing Education Research Conference
August 1 - 5, 2020
Virtual Event, New Zealand

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Overall Acceptance Rate 189 of 803 submissions, 24%

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ACM Conference on International Computing Education Research
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  • (2024)Skills Required for Quantum Computing: A Comprehensive Review of Recent StudiesProgramming and Computing Software10.1134/S036176882470080450:8(844-874)Online publication date: 1-Dec-2024
  • (2024)Quantum Error Correction for Kids2024 IEEE International Conference on Quantum Computing and Engineering (QCE)10.1109/QCE60285.2024.20452(1-6)Online publication date: 15-Sep-2024
  • (2023)A Systematic Literature Review on Physical and Action Based Activities in Computing Education for Early Years and PrimaryProceedings of the 18th WiPSCE Conference on Primary and Secondary Computing Education Research10.1145/3605468.3605500(1-10)Online publication date: 27-Sep-2023
  • (2023)QupcakeryProceedings of the 54th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education V. 110.1145/3545945.3569837(1143-1149)Online publication date: 3-Mar-2023
  • (2023)Quantum Picturalism: Learning Quantum Theory in High School2023 IEEE International Conference on Quantum Computing and Engineering (QCE)10.1109/QCE57702.2023.20321(21-32)Online publication date: 17-Sep-2023
  • (2022)Research Proposal: Exploring Quantum Informatics for Middle School StudentsProceedings of the 2022 ACM Conference on International Computing Education Research - Volume 210.1145/3501709.3544297(12-13)Online publication date: 7-Aug-2022
  • (2022)Updated and Adapted Curriculum and Pedagogy of Physics with the Fourth Industrial Revolution and Quantum Revolution: From Waves Principles to Quantum Mechanics Fundamentals2022 IEEE International Conference on Quantum Computing and Engineering (QCE)10.1109/QCE53715.2022.00088(653-668)Online publication date: Sep-2022
  • (2021)Exploring Generative Models with Middle School StudentsProceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3411764.3445226(1-13)Online publication date: 6-May-2021

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