Goals for this project

  • Demonstrate science communication skills
  • Create a learning experience for non-technical audiences about QIS
Deadline: Tuesday, March 7th, 10am

Each student will lead their own artifact. However, you may work with others if desired. That is, if people want to pair up, they may do so, but each needs to be primarily responsible for one artifact. The idea is to allow people to give and receive help, but not to create a relationship in which someone is dependent on a partner.

Grading will consist of a combination of appropriateness to the audience (what is the audience, and are the learning objectives appropriate), quality / level of polish of the materials, and final write-up presenting the artifact

Artifact Choices

There are several different ways to communicate QIS concepts to non-technical audiences. Here are a few choices, but if you want to do something off of the list, you can speak to me directly to find out whether it would be allowed: All of these need resources that connect the artifact to QIS to complete the learning goal(s). You are turning in two separate entities - all of the materials necessary for the learning experience itself designed for anyone who wants to run it as well as a write-up that describes your design decisions to me.

Topic

The first step is to choose a topic, then you'll drill down into specific learning objectives associated with the topic. You need to choose a quantum computing topic that has learning objectives that can be conveyed to a non-technical audience. If you are making a Zine, you may not make one that is the same as one of our existing Zines. Below is a list of potential topics that you could use for zines, though you may also think of your own (you are not restricted to this list):
  • Phase
  • Phase kickback
  • Divincenzo criteria (we did not do this in class)
  • Oracle algorithms
  • Error correction
  • Decoherence
  • Quantum teleportation
  • Shor’s Algorithm
  • Grover’s Algorithm
If you are not doing a zine, then you can do something related to the more basic topics:
  • Superposition
  • Entanglement
  • Measurement

Learning Objectives

An important step is defining exactly what your learning objectives are. There are several resources you can use to draw from. Learning objectives are much more specific than a topic - they need to be individual objectives related to the topic. This is where looking at the key concepts and framework can be useful. They might be exactly what you want to do, but they are examples of specificl learning objectives rather than topics. You should have at least 3 learning objectives. You need not choose something exactly from these; you may choose one or choose something related to it.
  • QIS K-12 Key Concepts defines a set of 9 key concepts for QIS, along with 3-4 bullet points for each one. These are written a bit more for a technical audience, so given our course, you should be able to understand them. However, they would need to be simplified for a non-technical audience. In addition, young students may need earlier concepts that lead to these later.
  • QIS K-12 Framework provides more specific, simpler learning objectives aimed at teachers of specific high school subjects. Math is about to be released, and we are currently working with middle-school teachers to create a set appropriate for middle-school students.
You need to write down the learning objectives and describe how they are related to QIS. Make a section with the header Learning Objectives. Then write each learning objective in bold (each should be just 1-2 sentences), followed by a description.

Educational Setting

Educational activities can occur in a variety of settings, to someone watching a video at home to interacting with a museum exhibit to learning formally in school. You need to identify the setting(s) in which you think your artifact could be used. For each setting, identify it as formal (in school, during school hours) or informal (outside of school). If it is informal, then specify where it takes place. Then write a few sentences that provides context about where / when / how it would be used.

Audience

You have two potential audiences: the learner and the facilitator, depending on the resource. This depends on the educational setting you anticipate.

So first you need to decide who your learner is. What age / age range? Child? A non-technical adult? What are you assuming about their knowledge of physics, math, and computer science (You are not allowed to design for a highly technical college student or adult)? What are their interests? What is important in their life? Make profiles about three very different versions of the same kind of learner. For example, if you choose a 7th grade student, make profiles about three very different 7th grade students. If it is parents, make profiles about three parents. Each profile will be about half a page and will describe the individual, answering the questions I posed above. Label this section Defining the User.

Next, you need to think about the setting of the learning activity. Is this in school? An after-school program? A museum? Home? Will there be a facilitator? Take a few paragraphs to describe the setting(s). Make sure you aren't too narrow in your definition of educational settings. For example, one might think zines have no educational setting, but they can be passed out at museums, science fairs, and used as companions to other learning activities. Label this section Educational Setting.

A parent, volunteer, or teacher? Make a profile of this individual. What is their knowledge of physics, math, and computer science? What are their knowledge strengths, and what might they be nervous about? Label this section Facilitator Profile. If you are assuming that there is no facilitator, make sure you meet with me because it may be that you need to expand the target educational settings.

Submit

Submit your writeup as a pdf on Gradescope. The writeup needs to have a URL to a public link with all of the artifact materials.