Q2Work: Supporting learners and educators to develop a competitive workforce in quantum information science and technology

在对量子信息科学与工程（QISE）的兴趣和投资迅速扩大的时候，相关的教育和劳动力发展工作变得至关重要。这个为期三年的项目旨在通过传播，凝聚力和协作来扩大其努力，从而加速整个量子教育社区的进展。该项目还将允许扩展K-12教育的关键概念，以便社区能够努力将QISE融入早期教育。活动包括一个网站，作为更广泛的QISE教育生态系统的中心，以及一套有凝聚力的研讨会计划，以进一步开发适合年龄的K-12 QISE教育资源。跨越K-12，学术界，政府，行业，专业协会和非正式教育组织的QISE教育生态系统的跨学科和融合连接是这一努力的核心要素。该方案从少数民族学生和女学生比例最低的领域中招收学生，该方案包括增加少数民族学生和女学生参与该方案的机制。技术摘要：QISE教育和相关研究与量子力学，数学或计算机科学不同，但它不是自己的领域。这项活动引导教育工作者，教育研究人员和QIS专业人士的社区，以进一步发展QISE教育，在这一关键领域进行新的努力和扩大研究。QISE的核心研究和技术进步取决于支持这个社区。此外，计划中的活动使教育界能够采取具体的合作步骤，对课程进行修改，并实施工具，以提高K-12级别以及最终所有年龄和学习环境中量子信息科学的意识，直觉和素养。计划的活动和产出旨在具有包容性，并与科学、技术、工程和数学领域代表性不足的群体建立联系。这项工作的目标还包括扩大不同背景的学生获得QISE的机会，增加女性和少数民族在大学一级的代表性。评估人员将使用调查、焦点小组和从网络日志中收集的数据分析等方法评估项目活动和可交付成果。鉴于重点是促进整个QIS教育生态系统的连接，将根据评估协作社区属性的框架制定评估协议。该项目部分由NSF的发现研究PreK-12（DRK-12）计划支持，教育人力资源局和数学和物理科学局（MPS）通过多学科活动办公室（OMA），材料研究部（DMR）和物理部。DRK-12旨在通过研究和开发创新资源，模型和工具，显着提高preK-12学生和教师的科学，技术，工程和数学（STEM）的学习和教学。DRK-12项目中的项目建立在STEM教育的基础研究以及为拟议项目提供理论和经验依据的先前研究和开发工作的基础上。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Non-technical Abstract:In the time of rapidly expanding interest and investment in Quantum Information Science and Engineering (QISE), relevant education and workforce development efforts are becoming critical. This three-year project is designed to accelerate progress across the quantum education community by amplifying its efforts through dissemination, cohesion, and collaboration. The project will also allow expansion of the Key Concepts for K-12 education, so that the community can work towards integrating QISE into early education. Activities include a website that serves as a hub for the wider QISE education ecosystem, and a plan for a cohesive set of workshops to further the development of age-appropriate K-12 QISE education resources. Transdisciplinary and convergent connections across the QISE education ecosystem spanning K-12, academia, government, industry, professional societies, and informal education organizations are a central element of this effort. QISE draws from the fields with some of the lowest percentages of underrepresented minority and female students, and this program involves mechanisms to increase participation of underrepresented groups in QISE. Technical Abstract:QISE education and the associated research is distinct from quantum mechanics, mathematics, or computer science, but it is not its own field. This activity bootstraps a community of educators, education researchers, and QIS professionals to further develop QISE education, seed new efforts and magnify research in this critical area. Core research and technological progress in QISE depends on supporting this community. Moreover, planned activities enable the education community to take concrete collaborative steps towards making changes to curricula and implementing tools that increase awareness, intuition, and literacy in quantum information science at the K-12 level and ultimately across all ages and learning environments. Planned activities and outputs are designed to be inclusive, and to build connections with underrepresented groups in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Broadening access to QISE for students of different backgrounds, and increased female and minority representation at the college level are also the goals of this work. An evaluator will assess the project activities and deliverables using methods such as surveys, focus groups, and data analytics collected from web logs. Given the emphasis on facilitating connections across QIS education ecosystem, evaluation protocols will be developed based on a framework for assessing the attributes of collaborative communities. This project is partially supported by NSF's Discovery Research PreK-12 (DRK-12) program, in the Directorate for Education & Human Resources and Directorate for Mathematical and Physical Sciences (MPS) through the Office of Multidisciplinary Activities (OMA), Division of Materials Research (DMR) and Division of Physics. DRK-12 seeks to significantly enhance the learning and teaching of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) by preK-12 students and teachers through research and development of innovative resources, models and tools. Projects in the DRK-12 program build on fundamental research in STEM education and prior research and development efforts that provide theoretical and empirical justification for proposed projects.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.