Bridging the Quantum Divide: A Learning-Centric Quantum Hackathon for Underrepresented Students (Extended Version)

TL;DR

This paper details a two-day quantum hackathon designed for underrepresented high school students, combining hands-on activities and guided challenges within a mastery learning framework to introduce quantum computing.

Contribution

It presents a novel curriculum design for a quantum hackathon tailored to underrepresented students, utilizing Quirk for circuit simulations and informed by educational theory.

Findings

Students successfully learned quantum computing basics.

The hackathon reached most target demographics.

The curriculum was effective within the specified educational framework.

Abstract

This paper describes the design and implementation of a two-day quantum hackathon for underrepresented high school students in Nova Scotia, Canada. The first day of the hackathon is spent introducing students to quantum computing through hands-on activities, whereas the second day teaches students to apply this knowledge through guided challenges. Both days are informed by the theory of mastery learning and specification grading, with the full curriculum being crafted within the Integrated Course Design framework. This requires identifying situational factors unique to our target demographics, from which we develop learning outcomes, and then work backwards to a full curriculum with educative assessments. A novel aspect of our hackathon is that all circuit simulations are performed within Quirk: a decision based on best practices in computer science education. Based on feedback from students, we conclude that our hackathon successfully introduced students to the basics of quantum computing, and was able to reach most of our target demographics.