Developed by: Steven Pollock, Gina Passante, and Homeyra Sadaghiani
middle schoolhigh schoolintro collegeinter-mediateupper levelgrad school other
Overview
What? Supplementary activities for upper-level Quantum I, particularly designed for a "Spins-First" approach. Includes learning goals, interactive lectures, homework tutorials, group activities, and clicker questions. Materials are modular and can be adapted for other teaching strategies or materials.
Why? If you teach quantum mechanics (especially a "spins-first" approach) and are looking to make your class more interactive and student-centered, these materials provide modular, easily adaptable clicker questions, group activities/tutorials, homework question ideas, and more.
Why not? If you teach a "Wave functions first" course, you may still find useful materials but the organization will not match your course very well. Some Tutorials take up a lot of class time (but we have online alternatives for these)
Example materials
Activity outline
Activities come in several basic flavors: Concept ("clicker") questions to intersperse in lecture to engage students, tutorials (paper or online) for small group activities, homework and assessment questions. In-class activities will involve putting students into groups of 2-3 to discuss, debate and engage with some basic (mostly conceptual) questions that we have observed can be challenging for students.
Topic outline
(Numbers correspond to chapters in McIntyre's textbook)
0) Background/Modern Physics
1) Stern-Gerlach experiments
2) Operators and Measurements
3) Schrodinger Time Evolution
4) Quantum entanglement (and Quantum computation, also in Ch 16)
5) Spatial wave functions and particle in a box
6) Unbound states
7) Angular momentum
8) Hydrogen atom
16) Quantum Computation
Student skills developed
- Conceptual understanding
- Problem-solving skills
- Using multiple representations
- Making real-world connections
- Metacognition
Instructor effort required
- Medium
Resources required
- Clickers / polling method
- Projector
Resources
Teaching Materials
You can download all materials, including learning goals, interactive lectures, homework tutorials, group activities, and clicker questions, for free from the PhysPort ACEQM curriculum page.
Research
Silver ValidationThis is the second highest level of research validation, corresponding to:
- at least 1 of the "based on" categories
- at least 2 of the "demonstrated to improve" categories
- at least 4 of the "studied using" categories
Research Validation Summary
Based on Research Into:
- theories of how students learn
- student ideas about specific topics
Demonstrated to Improve:
- conceptual understanding
- problem-solving skills
- lab skills
- beliefs and attitudes
- attendance
- retention of students
- success of underrepresented groups
- performance in subsequent classes
Studied using:
- cycle of research and redevelopment
- student interviews
- classroom observations
- analysis of written work
- research at multiple institutions
- research by multiple groups
- peer-reviewed publication
References
- B. Cervantes, G. Passante, G. Corsiglia, and S. Pollock, Modified color frames for analyzing group interactions during an online quantum tutorial, presented at the Physics Education Research Conference 2022, Grand Rapids, MI, 2022.
- G. Corsiglia, T. Garcia, B. Schermerhorn, G. Passante, H. Sadaghiani, and S. Pollock, Characterizing and monitoring student discomfort in upper-division quantum mechanics, presented at the Physics Education Research Conference 2020, Virtual Conference, 2020.
- G. Corsiglia, S. Pollock, and G. Passante, Intuition in quantum mechanics: Student perspectives and expectations, Phys. Rev. Phys. Educ. Res. 19 (1), 010109 (2023).
- G. Corsiglia, B. Schermerhorn, H. Sadaghiani, A. Villasenor, S. Pollock, and G. Passante, Exploring student ideas on change of basis in quantum mechanics, Phys. Rev. Phys. Educ. Res. 18 (1), 010144 (2022).
- J. Kruse and B. Wilcox, Rasch Analysis of the Quantum Mechanics Concept Assessment, presented at the Physics Education Research Conference 2023, Sacramento, CA, 2023.
- G. Passante, H. Sadaghiani, S. Pollock, and B. Schermerhorn, Students' choices when solving expectation value problems, presented at the Physics Education Research Conference 2018, Washington, DC, 2018.
- S. Pollock, G. Passante, and H. Sadaghiani, Adaptable research-based materials for teaching quantum mechanics, Am. J. Phys. 91 (1), 40 (2022).
- S. Pollock, H. Sadaghiani, A. Quaal, and G. Passante, Designing, validating, and contrasting conceptual quantum mechanics questions for spin states and spatial wave functions, presented at the Physics Education Research Conference 2018, Washington, DC, 2018.
- A. Quaal, G. Passante, S. Pollock, and H. Sadaghiani, Exploratory factor analysis of the QMCA, presented at the Physics Education Research Conference 2020, Virtual Conference, 2020.
- H. Sadaghiani, Spin First vs. Position First instructional approaches to teaching introductory quantum mechanics, presented at the Physics Education Research Conference 2016, Sacramento, CA, 2016.
- H. Sadaghiani and J. Munteanu, Spin First instructional approach to teaching quantum mechanics in sophomore level modern physics courses, presented at the Physics Education Research Conference 2015, College Park, MD, 2015.
- H. Sadaghiani, G. Passante, and S. Pollock, Student understanding of quantum mechanical expectation values in two different curricula, presented at the Physics Education Research Conference 2018, Washington, DC, 2018.
- H. Sadaghiani and S. Pollock, Quantum mechanics concept assessment: Development and validation study, Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. 11 (1), 010110 (2014).
- B. Schermerhorn, G. Corsiglia, H. Sadaghiani, G. Passante, and S. Pollock, From Cartesian coordinates to Hilbert space: Supporting student understanding of basis in quantum mechanics, Phys. Rev. Phys. Educ. Res. 18 (1), 010145 (2022).
- B. Schermerhorn, G. Passante, H. Sadaghiani, and S. Pollock, Exploring student preferences when calculating expectation values using a computational features framework, Phys. Rev. Phys. Educ. Res. 15 (2), 020144 (2019).
- B. Schermerhorn, H. Sadaghiani, A. Mansour, S. Pollock, and G. Passante, Impact of problem context on students’ concept definition of an expectation value, Phys. Rev. Phys. Educ. Res. 17 (2), 020141 (2021).
- B. Schermerhorn, A. Villasenor, D. Agunos, H. Sadaghiani, G. Passante, and S. Pollock, Student perceptions of math-physics interactions throughout spins-first quantum mechanics, presented at the Physics Education Research Conference 2019, Provo, UT, 2019.
- J. Wells, H. Sadaghiani, B. Schermerhorn, S. Pollock, and G. Passante, Deeper look at question categories, concepts, and context covered: Modified module analysis of quantum mechanics concept assessment, Phys. Rev. Phys. Educ. Res. 17 (2), 020113 (2021).
- B. Wilcox and S. Pollock, Investigating students’ behavior and performance in online conceptual assessment, Phys. Rev. Phys. Educ. Res. 15 (2), 020145 (2019).
