Teachers get a taste of QCamp in one day

Participants of T-qcamp doing the “quantum cat” pose with some of the facilitators and organisers.

After the students had their fun, it was the teachers’ turn. On 19 June 2023, CQT hosted 14 physics teachers and staff from Singapore’s Ministry of Education (MOE) for a one-day version of QCamp, CQT’s annual camp on quantum technologies for pre-university students. 

“It was a great experience. I got to know more about updates about the quantum technology field which will make me better able to enthuse the students,” said one participant in a survey at the end of the session. Another said, “Much positive vibes from everyone! Learnt a lot (and revised a lot!) about qubits and quantum in general.” 

QCamp for teachers, or T-qcamp, had a programme distilled from QCamp’s original five-day run. QCamp organising committee members Clara Fontaine, Angelina Frank, Chee Chong Hian and Zaw Lin Htoo first shared about QCamp’s approach to pedagogy. Then, the participants attended a lecture on qubits and physics, given by PhD student Peter Sidajaya.  

“It was an honour to be able to teach the teachers and I hope that it’ll help in sparking interest in quantum physics in future students,” said Peter. 

For a glimpse into the current state of the field, the participants visited the labs of Principal Investigators Travis Nicholson and Yvonne Gao. Travis shared about his group’s work on using lasers to trap and cool indium atoms for quantum simulation and foundational physics, while PhD student Fernando Valadares from Yvonne’s group shared about their work with superconducting circuits for quantum computing. 

The second half of the programme focused on applications of quantum physics. PhD student Enrique Cervero gave a lecture on quantum information and cryptography. Enrique said, “It was a great experience being able to share our research with the students and the teachers to directly (and indirectly) motivate a new generation to contribute to the development of this exciting field.” 

Afterwards, the participants had a hands-on experimental activity using kits produced by CQT researchers, where they used lasers and polarisers to distribute quantum keys for sending and receiving encrypted messages.  

The idea for T-qcamp was seeded at the 15th Physics Instructional Programme Support Group (IPSG) Symposium earlier this year in January. The QCamp organising committee had presented about QCamp at the symposium, which is a platform for teachers from different schools to network and share insights and experiences.