Session 13

Beyond the Challenge of Challenge of Quantum Reality

Note: this is a Double Session. If you choose this session for Breakout C,
you must choose session 14 for Breakout D at 9:45.

The rules of quantum physics are both very clear and extremely useful. However, they are also very counter-intuitive. This makes the topic very attractive to students - but often unsettling to teachers. The Perimeter Institute's free resource - The Challenge of Quantum Reality - is a great place to start exploring these ideas. This workshop continues where that resource left off and includes recent research from the Institute of Quantum Computing.

In this workshop you will see how the polarization of light can be used to reinforce and extend the key concepts of quantum physics. This will be done through a combination of hands-on demonstrations, thought experiments, short videos, computer simulations and lots of discussion about thought-provoking concept questions.

Part 1 will explore single-photon interference and quantum polarization. Part 2 will use and extend the ideas of part 1 to look at entanglement, quantum editing, superconductivity, quantum cryptography and quantum computing.

Participants will be provided with worksheets - including answers and extra information for the teacher - that will enable them to run one or several classes on this topic. These worksheets have been reviewed and greatly improved through discussions with physics teachers from across Canada.

Biography

Roberta has been teaching physics in Toronto for 25 years. She is rather fanatical about modern physics and Physics Education Research and spends her spare time looking for ways to combine them to make high school physics more exciting and inviting. She has given workshops to this end around special relativity, general relativity, particle physics quantum uncertainty and entanglement. She is a consultant for the Perimeter Institute of Theoretical and the coordinator of PI’s Teacher Network. In her spare spare time she plays New Orleans jazz at Grossman’s Tavern in Toronto.