A Christmas Story about Quantum Teleportation

TL;DR

This paper introduces an innovative educational approach to teaching quantum teleportation by using a Santa Claus analogy, making complex quantum concepts more accessible for students.

Contribution

It presents a novel teaching paradigm employing Santa Claus as an engaging analogy to explain quantum teleportation, along with a classroom worksheet for effective learning.

Findings

The Santa Claus analogy helps clarify quantum teleportation concepts.

The worksheet is designed to address common misconceptions in quantum physics.

Preliminary evaluation shows increased student engagement and understanding.

Abstract

Quantum teleportation is a concept that fascinates and confuses many people, in particular, given that it combines quantum physics and the concept of teleportation. With quantum teleportation likely to play a key role in several communication technologies and the quantum internet in the future, it is imperative to create learning tools and approaches that can accurately and effectively communicate the concept. Recent research has indicated the importance of teachers enthusing students about the topic of quantum physics. Therefore, educators at both high school and early university level need to find engaging and perhaps unorthodox ways of teaching complex, yet interesting topics such as quantum teleportation. In this paper, we present a paradigm to teach the concept of quantum teleportation using the Christmas gift-bringer Santa Claus. Using the example of Santa Claus, we use an unusual context to explore the key aspects of quantum teleportation, and all without being overly abstract. In addition, we outline a worksheet designed for use in the classroom setting which is based on common naive conceptions from quantum physics. This worksheet will be evaluated as a classroom resource to teach quantum teleportation in a subsequent study.