Entangle me! A game to demonstrate the principles of quantum mechanics

Abstract

We introduce a game to illustrate the principles of quantum mechanics using a qubit (or spin-first) approach, where students can experience and discover its puzzling features first-hand. Students take the role of particles and scientists. Scientists unravel underlying rules and properties by collecting and analysing data that is generated by observing particles that act according to given rules. We show how this allows one to illustrate quantum states, their stochastic behavior under measurements as well as quantum entanglement. In addition, we use this approach to illustrate and discuss decoherence, and a modern application of quantum features, namely quantum cryptography. We have tested the game in class and report on the results we obtained.

Issues and Challenges in Teaching Secondary School Quantum Physics with Integrated STEM Education in Malaysia

“…As aforementioned, QP is indeed a tough and elusive topic, difficult to understand than classical physics. Hence, it requires a specific approach to tackle the problems (Habibbulloh, 2019;López-Incera & Dür, 2019;Krijtenburg-Lewerissa et al, 2017;McKagan et al, 2009;Stadermann & Goedhart, 2020). Integrated STEM education philosophy in empowering cohesive teaching and learning paradigm may encourage and arouse students' interest in QP with real-life contexts and common technological applications (Stadermann et al, 2019).…”

Analysis of secondary school quantum physics curricula of 15 different countries: Different perspectives on a challenging topic

“…This approach, which is also called the qubits approach, spin-first approach or Dirac approach [92][93][94] emphasizes the fundamental role of the superposition principle in QP. Several activating pedagogical strategies-for example, simulated experiments for students to work with-have recently been developed [95][96][97]. The proponents of this pedagogical approach expect that students grasp the key concepts and philosophical consequences of QP directly and much easier with two-level systems because they do not have to go through all the same problems as physicists in the first phase of the development of the quantum theory.…”

Encrypt me! A game-based approach to Bell inequalities and quantum cryptography

“…In this work, we take a game based approach to these topics [20][21][22][23], where we follow Ref. [24]. There, a game * andrea.lopez-incera@uibk.ac.at was introduced that allows students to take on the role of quantum bits (qubits) and scientists, and discover the features and rules of the quantum world.…”