Hands-On Quantum Uncertainty

This workshop will present two very simple and cheap demonstrations that you can use to explore some of the subtle and bizarre aspects of quantum physics in your classroom. Both demonstrate how measurements of a quantum system, necessarily and fundamentally change what is observed and how there are strict theoretical limits on how much we can know.

The first demonstration examines Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle. Participants will make the world's cheapest variable slit and observe how the diffraction of light increases as the width of the slit narrows.  How this is an example of Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle at work is a focus of the workshop.

The second demonstration looks at wave-particle duality and the perplexing question of which way a photon (or any other quantum object) goes in a double-slit experiment. The demonstration uses polarizing filters to determine which path the photons take. However, this measurement destroys the very interference pattern that we are trying to explain. When another filter is added, it erases the information of which way the photons went - and the pattern returns! Interpretations of what this means will be explored.

The workshop will use concept questions, whiteboards and other resources to model how you can keep your students actively engaged even when dealing with quantum physics.

Roberta Tevlin has been teaching physics for over two-dozen years. After the year of Physics - 2005 – she started to radically change her approach. A weeklong summer workshop at the Perimeter Institute of Theoretical Physics convinced her that more ‘modern’ physics could and should be introduced into high school classes. She also finally heard the message that Physics Education Research had been sending out for decades. She has started to incorporate more and more active-learning strategies in her lessons.
In an effort to promote the combination of modern physics and PER she has developed and presented workshops on Hands-On Special Relativity, Hands-On General Relativity, Hands-On Particle Physics and Hands-On Quantum Physics. (She would like to try Hands-On Quantum Gravity and Hands-On Quantum Computers but she fears that isn’t possible - yet.) These resources and others can be found on her web site at http://roberta.tevlin.ca.
She is currently the secretary for the OAPT and the Coordinator of the Perimeter Institute's Teacher Network and she plays New Orleans Jazz almost every Saturday at Grossman's Tavern in Toronto