This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5). This award supports the continued development, assessment, and dissemination of Quantum Interactive Learning Tutorials (QuILT) for advanced undergraduate courses. QuILTs are based upon a field-tested cognitive apprenticeship model of learning and emphasize modeling, coaching, and scaffolding. The following features of the QuILTs make them particularly suited for the challenging task of teaching quantum physics: (1) They are based upon research in physics education and pay particular attention to cognitive issues. (2) They consistently keep students actively engaged in the learning process by asking them to predict what should happen in a particular situation and then providing appropriate feedback. (3) They employ visualization tools to help students build physical intuition about quantum processes. (4) They attempt to bridge the gap between the abstract quantitative formalism of quantum mechanics and the qualitative understanding necessary to explain and predict diverse physical phenomena. (5) They are based on systematic investigations of difficulties students have in learning various concepts in quantum physics. (6) They can be used in class by the instructors once or twice a week as supplements to lectures or outside of the class as homework or as self-study tool by students. (7) They consist of self-sufficient modular units that can be used in any order that is convenient. To aid instructors, the various concept-based and problem-based QuILT modules will be keyed with most of the common textbooks. However, every effort will be made to ensure that the different modules fit together as a coherent whole and help students organize their knowledge in a hierarchical fashion.
