Introduce interactive science center visitors to quantum computing concepts through a fun, collaborative game by adapting a free online resource for learning during and beyond the museum visit.
Ron Skinner
Ron Skinner is a STEM educator and researcher currently studying climate change critical thinking at UC Santa Barbara.
Kaia Joye Wesolowski
Kaia-Joye Wesolowski is the Director of Learning Experiences at MOXI, The Wolf Museum of Exploration + Innovation, leading the Education and Exhibits teams.
Devon M. Christman, Ph.D
Devon M. Christman is a science education researcher focused on physical science, computer science, and educational technology for K-8 learners.
Grace Williams
Grace Williams is a Ph.D. student in computer science at the University of Chicago.
David Gonzalez-Maldonado
David Gonzalez-Maldonado is a Ph.D. student in computer science at the University of Chicago.
Liliana Garcia
Liliana Garcia is a Ph.D. student in the Gevirtz Graduate School of Education at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Danielle Harlow
Danielle Harlow is a professor of STEM education and an associate dean at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Diana Franklin
Diana Franklin is an Associate Professor at the University of Chicago focusing on computer science and quantum computing education.
Emily Edwards
Emily Edwards is an Associate Research Professor at Duke in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the Duke Quantum Center.
Superposition, qubit, entanglement… these key terms relate to the exciting technology and opaque science of quantum computing. The field of Quantum Information Science (QIS) is rapidly evolving and will significantly influence future technologies, yet it rarely is part of either formal or informal educational settings. Despite interest and investment in QIS at the higher education and industry levels, there is a lack of accessible quantum education for young learners and the public. The National Quantum Initiative Act recognizes the need for QIS education at all levels and has spurred federal investment in both formal and informal learning settings. [1]
The Quantum Revolution is Coming
Quantum computers are projected to be able to carry out certain complex calculations that our current, classical computers cannot accomplish efficiently. The word quantum refers to the smallest possible unit of something, which in this context relates to the properties of tiny particles like atoms, electrons, and photons. Quantum computers use these properties to perform complex calculations in ways that are fundamentally different from non-quantum computers. In , quantum computers will be faster than classical computers.
A quantum computing revolution requires a new generation of scientists and engineers who are familiar with quantum concepts and principles. Yet, educational efforts to teach the basic concepts of this field to a new generation are lacking [2]. A few efforts have been developed to introduce pre-college students to QIS, including an activity on quantum teleportation for secondary school students [3] and a series of coding-based activities for high-school students [4]. However, high-quality activities to promote QIS at the K-12 level are scarce, despite research showing that middle school is a crucial time for students as they begin to contemplate possible career paths [5,6].
This article describes the adaptation of an existing online educational computer game to introduce quantum computing concepts to an interactive science center audience from age seven to adult.
In the resulting gamified exhibit, two players work together to navigate a pair of computer-generated mazes. But there is a catch—each player finds themselves in their own impossible maze. Fortunately, the players are correlated, a key feature of entanglement. For example, when one player moves one space, the other player’s position moves one space in the same, opposite, or perpendicular direction depending on the game level. If the players work together by each moving within the constraints of their own maze, they can help each other walk through walls and complete their maze. Only one player can move at a time so players must collaboratively decide who will make each move. This exhibit:
- Introduces visitors to concepts in Quantum Information Science (QIS).
- Is accessible to a wide range of ages and abilities.
- Extends learning beyond the museum visit through access to five connected single-player games that introduce additional QIS concepts.
Over the past 3 years, a multi-institutional effort has developed Quander, a slate of computer games that introduce quantum concepts to a broad audience. The Quander game world contains five QIS-themed games and collectible reward cards. The characters of the games use QIS concepts, including superposition, probabilistic outcomes, entanglement, measurement, and quantum circuit logic gates to solve puzzles and accomplish tasks. The main characters—who are meant to inspire curiosity—have a superposition aspect, featuring vampires (bats + people), zombies (dead + alive), and a werewolf. A detailed description of the Quander storyline, characters, and games can be found at this website.
Quander gamifies complex QIS concepts to build quantum intuition at a basic level. During development, the games were studied with variousaudiences under the governance of an Institutional Review Board. For example, Quander games were introduced to a summer camp for inner-city youth ages 12-14. Following facilitated gameplay sessions, focus group interviews explored what the youth learned about quantum concepts and how their conceptions aligned with the intended learning goals of the games. The games were also tested at science festivals and county fairs, with facilitators helping to scaffold QIS learning and collect feedback from players with a wide range of ages and abilities. In formal settings, over one hundred K-12 educators from 31 states, Canada, and the Dominican Republic accessed Quander game resources and classroom facilitation guides in celebration of the first World Quantum Day on April 14, 2022. Feedback from these pilot studies was used to refine the games for a broad audience [7].
Adaptation for an Interactive Science Center Setting
QIS involves concepts that are challenging to communicate because people do not interact directly with features such as entanglement, and the topic is not taught as widely as classical physics. This complexity makes it both ideal for developing novel approaches and difficult to create interactive science center exhibits that are informative and engaging for a general audience. While the Quander games present QIS concepts in a way that is accessible to a broad audience, computer-based education software commonly prioritizes the individual user, limiting its use in an interactive science museum setting [8,9]. However, many studies have supported using computer games to provide hands-on engagement, unique experiences, and opportunities for co-participation [10,11,12]. Design criteria for successful implementation of game-based exhibits in museum settings include “low barriers to entry, emphasizing exploration and curiosity, incorporating immediate and dramatic feedback, devising inviting visual aesthetics with broad appeal, and leveraging novel hardware platforms.” [13, p. 110].
Considering these design criteria, we selected one of the Quander games, TwinTanglement, which lends itself to a multiplayer, interactive experience. With a simple conversion (described in the Multiplayer TwinTanglement Facilitation Guide), the online, open-access, single-player game converts to an engaging, interactive multiplayer experience (Figure 1):
- A large secondary display makes the game action visible to all museum visitors.
- Replacing keyboard functions with dance pad buttons (e.g., Dance Dance Revolution pads) encourages visitors to stand and move their whole bodies.
- Two dance pads and a mechanical button to switch between pads turn the single-user game into a multi-user game, requiring communication and collaboration between players (Figure 2).
- Facilitators help visitors engage quickly and successfully with the game, connect the experience to cutting-edge science and technology, and provide access to Quander games resource to extend the learning and experience beyond the museum visit.
Testing of the Multiplayer Quander Game
The multiplayer version of the TwinTanglement game was initially tested with 35 4th and 5th grade students (ages 9-11 years) attending a University-Community Partnership Club (UCPC, pseudonym), an afterschool program partnership between a large research university in Central California and a local elementary school district. UCPC hosts students on the university campus once a week for 25 weeks to increase various literacy skills. During one UCPC session, 35 youth (19 boys and 16 girls, all English Language Learners) interacted with our research team to assist us in testing the modified video game. This initial test allowed us to debug the modifications and provided feedback on the facilitation prompts.
We then evaluated the exhibit in a pilot study at a research space in MOXI, The Wolf Museum of Exploration + Innovation, an interactive children’s science center in Santa Barbara, California. MOXI partners with research labs at the University of California, Santa Barbara, to facilitate a live research corner, “Science in Action,” where guests can engage in real time with local researchers in research games or activities, making research an interactive part of the museum exhibit experience. During the pilot at MOXI, 39 museum visitors played the facilitated multiplayer TwinTanglement game. Three undergraduate research assistant students, with minimal knowledge of either informal science education or QIS, were trained using the Multiplayer TwinTanglement Facilitation Guide to facilitate the exhibit. Most participant pairs consisted of a child and a parent. The age of child participants ranged from 3-14 years, with an average age of 8. Ten of the 26 children participants took a printed card with a QR code to access the Quander game resources at home. All participants consented to participate in the study, which included field observations of participants playing the game and analysis of game analytics for both in-museum and at-home play.
Findings and Analysis
We found that the multiplayer TwinTanglement exhibit was an engaging game for a wide range of ages and abilities. With active players and a large secondary screen, museum visitors saw and were attracted to the exhibit. While a simple invitation to play a fun game and navigate a maze was usually enough to engage most visitors, the facilitators also modeled behavior by playing the game to recruit players, as needed. The average stay time at the exhibit was 5.5 minutes, with a range of one minute (ages 3-4) to 14 minutes (ages 10-12). This compares positively to an average stay time for children at interactive science center exhibits of 62.5 seconds [14]. Communication and collaboration occurred with pairs of children, a child and an adult, and pairs of adults. In the case of single players, facilitators substituted for the second player.
Children ages seven and older could typically play the game with another child or adult, understand the goals and rules, manipulate the buttons on the dance pads, strategize, collaborate, and communicate. Younger children, playing with an older sibling or adult capable of assisting them, could still engage with the game, but they often focused on the mechanics of finding and stepping on the different colored dance pad buttons or on the movements of the characters on the screen—rather than on the game objective.
Occasionally, when the ages or abilities of players were mismatched, one player tended to take control of the game. In these cases, facilitators encouraged players to communicate, collaborate, and work their way through the maze using teamwork. Completion of a maze was celebrated with clapping, cheers, or praise. Facilitators focused praise on effort, determination, communication, or how players worked together, emphasizing their process over the outcome.
Of the ten participants who took a printed card with a QR code to access the Quander game resources at home, six interacted with the online games after their MOXI visit. Of those six, one played only TwinTanglement (playing multiple levels), four engaged for a short time with multiple mini-games (typically playing only a single level), and one explored multiple mini-games in depth (playing multiple levels for each game). The players who explored multiple levels received reward cards containing additional information about QIS and quantum phenomena.
Conclusion
A simple modification of an existing free online resource turned a single-user computer game into an interactive, multiplayer exhibit, making QIS accessible and engaging to a broad audience in an interactive science center. These modifications and access to the online resource are available at the links below, allowing other interactive science centers to replicate the experience for their visitors, bringing quantum information science to a broad audience.
For a public version of Quander games, go to this website.
For the multiplayer TwinTanglement facilitation guide, access this PDF.
Acknowledgements
University of California, Santa Barbara, undergraduate research assistants Edwin Yee, Charlene Patenaude, and Wei-Jung Huang contributed to the testing event at MOXI, The Wolf Museum of Exploration + Innovation. This project is funded by the National Science Foundation (2115780 and 2115843). Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
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