Qubit by Qubit: Insights and Best Practices from Teaching Quantum to 10,000 High School Students Globally*

In recent years, there has been growing global interest in quantum education. However, there is still  a long way to go to make quantum education accessible to K-12 students and educators. In surveying approximately 7,000 high-school age students from over 2,000 schools around the world, over 80% had never previously taken a formal lesson or class on quantum. 

 

At Qubit by Qubit, a nonprofit initiative focused on making quantum education accessible and inclusive for K-12 students and educators, it is our mission to change those figures. Since 2020, we have taught quantum to over 10,000 high school students and educators around the world, and more broadly, have built an empowering pipeline for high school students to pursue further studies in quantum - in university and beyond. 

This talk will focus on the pipeline of K-12 programming we’ve designed and key takeaways and best practices we’ve learned from teaching quantum to thousands of high school students in the hopes of helping fellow educators increase the impact of their quantum education efforts. 

In terms of programs, we will discuss our Middle School Summer Camp, two-semester Introduction to Quantum Computing course in collaboration with IBM Quantum, and the first national High School Quantum Research Program. We will share data-driven insights from these programs, including on students’ STEM self-confidence gap at varying ages and how learning quantum increases students’ confidence in their STEM abilities. 

Best practices will focus on incorporating DEIA in quantum education (55% of the students we serve are from traditionally underrepresented backgrounds in STEM). This includes the importance of providing free programming and offering a mobile-friendly curriculum for students, as well as how to account for students with learning differences. Through this discussion, we hope listeners will better understand how to implement and scale a K-12 quantum educational initiative using an inclusivity-driven framework.