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Introduction
Malte Ubben currently works at the Fachbereich Didaktik der Physik, University of Leipzig. He does research in Didactics and Education. His focus of research are mental models and cognitive development as well as modern physics and its education.
Current institution
Additional affiliations
May 2020 - September 2023
May 2023 - present
Education
September 2011 - September 2016
Publications
Publications (67)
In previous research, it has been argued that many of the student (mis-)conceptions of quantum concepts described in the literature as widespread among learners can be traced back to poorly developed (quantum) model perceptions that hinder the learning of quantum physics. In particular, it has been shown that the degrees of two cognitive dimensions...
With the increasing industrial relevance of quantum technologies (QTs), a new quantum workforce with special qualification will be needed. Building this workforce requires educational efforts, ranging from short term training to degree programs. In order to plan, map and compare such efforts, personal qualifications or job requirements, standardiza...
![Proficiency triangle from the CFQT [3]. In the framework document, each...](publication/386733587/figure/fig4/AS:11431281296266273@1733886731851/Proficiency-triangle-from-the-CFQT3-In-the-framework-document-each-proficiency-level_Q320.jpg)
The transition of second-generation quantum technologies from a research topic to a topic of industrial relevance has led to a growing number of quantum companies and businesses that are exploring quantum technologies. Examples would include a start-up building a quantum key distribution device, a large company working on integrating a quantum sens...
The present review intends to show the current state of teaching quantum-related content, to analyze and compare its learning efficiency, and to give a systemized overview of quantum-educational activities in the last years. We focus on teaching and learning elements, their innovative tools, and process-oriented studies that are empirically validat...
In recent years, the importance of mobile devices has increased for education in general and more specifically for science and mathematics education. In the classroom, approaches for teaching with mobile devices include using student-owned devices (“bring your own device”; BYOD approach) or using school-owned devices from central pools (POOL approa...
Pubished in EPJ Quantum Technology 12, 1 (2025), https://doi.org/10.1140/epjqt/s40507-024-00302-5
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With the increasing industrial relevance of quantum technologies (QTs), a new quantum workforce with special qualification will be needed. Building this workforce req...
Das Vorführen von Experimenten ist in der Praxis mit ganz unterschiedlichen „Verständnis-Stolpersteinen“ für das Publikum verbunden und bei der Gestaltung des Aufbaus entstehen häufig auch ganz praktische Probleme. Dieses Buch liefert sowohl theorie- als auch erfahrungsgestütztes Wissen zur Konzeption, Ausgestaltung, Vorführung und Auswertung von D...
Pubished in EPJ Quantum Technology 11, 82 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1140/epjqt/s40507-024-00294-2
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The transition of second-generation quantum technologies from a research topic to a topic of industrial relevance has led to a growing number of quantum companies and...
Quantum entanglement is a challenging concept within the field of physics education, often eluding a full grasp by both educators and learners alike. In this paper, we report findings from a two-phase empirical study into the views of entanglement held by pre-service physics teachers and physics students from various universities. In the first phas...
Quantum physics (QP) education at the secondary school level is still in its infancy. Not only is there ongoing discussion about how to teach this subject, but there is also a lack of coherence in the selection of concepts to be taught, both across countries and over time. To contribute to this discussion, we investigated the perspectives of N = 39...
Introduction
Nowadays, more and more digital resources are used in modern mathematical modeling classes. In order to access these resources, students need a suitable digital device—often mobile devices are used for this purpose. There are several concepts to enable students access to such devices. For example, students can be allowed to use their s...
Quantum physics modeling is technically complex and often non-descriptive. This article presents some approaches how quantum physical ideas can be represented by haptic models. For this purpose, models made from 3D printers, models made from paper strips, and models made from textiles are compared. A novelty is the use of zippers instead of paper s...
Research in astronomy education has uncovered that many learners possess limited and fragmented understanding of stars. The corresponding misconceptions manifest in various areas such as star formation, size, the relationship between stars and planets, and their position in space and have been shown to persist across different age groups and educat...
After conducting a pilot study whose purpose was to find out which exemplary mental models about the solar system exist among pupils, we expanded the study to a sample size of 100 pupils of classes 5 to 13, with 93 pre-tests and 78 post-tests. We observed what impact the use of embodied learning could have during the Erasmus+ project “Aristarchus”,...
Full text: https://ojs.dpg-physik.de/index.php/phydid-b/article/view/1362
Translation on arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2312.06269
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Quantenphysikalische Modellierungen sind fachlich komplex und oft unanschaulich. Dieser Artikel stellt einige Ansätze vor, wie quantenphys...
Astronomie ist seit jeher ein interessantes Thema für Lernende. Doch nicht nur die Wissenschaft, sondern auch die Medien bieten eine Vielzahl von Darstellungen astronomischer Objekte. Durch die Medien werden diese oft aus dem Kontext gerissen, wodurch im Inhaltsfeld Astronomie in weiterführenden Schulen interessant wird, welche Vorstellungen und me...
The European Competence Framework for Quantum Technologies is rapidly evolving into the basic common language for educational efforts, comparison of training offerings, mapping of courses and development of educational modules. It has been compiled within the European Quantum Flagship coordination and support projects QTEdu and QUCATS. It is centra...
Fostering students' understanding of models is a challenge. However, in particular for learning quantum physics an elaborate understanding of models is required. We investigated activities to foster students' functional thinking about (quantum) models in a synchronous online course. The results of an evaluation study (N = 59) showed that the partic...
Research in astronomy education has uncovered that many learners possess limited and fragmented understanding of stars. The corresponding misconceptions manifest in various areas such as star formation, size, the relationship between stars and planets, and their position in space and have been shown to persist across different age groups and educat...
With the increasing industrial relevance of new quantum technologies, a well-educated quantum workforce becomes increasingly crucial. The foreseeable lack of workforce raises important questions. What are the expectations regarding the future relevance of second-generation quantum technologies? What are the requirements for the workforce in the com...
Learning quantum physics is essential for understanding the physical world. However, learning about quantum phenomena and principles poses a challenge as many of the phenomena that are observed at the quantum level cannot be directly observed or intuitively understood in terms of classical physics or thinking. Models play an important role in learn...
This article reports the findings of a qualitative study that aimed to explore the ideas of 22 preservice physics teachers regarding astronomy concepts both within and beyond the solar system, as well as their understanding of the Nature of Science in the context of astronomy. The study employed a combination of open-ended vignette tasks and rankin...
This article presents a review of research on smartphone usage in educational science settings published between January 2015 and August 2022, and aims to provide an overview of the constructs evaluated and to identify potential gaps in current research for researchers working on this topic. Specifically, the search for publications in the relevant...
In diesem Beitrag geht es darum, wie man den Arduino für zeitkritische Anwendungen, wie die Erzeugung eines Frequenz-signals, verwenden kann. Obwohl Rechtecksignale vergleichsweise einfach zu erzeugen sind, zeigen Analysen mittels Oszilloskops aber, dass einige Anpassungen am Programmcode notwendig sind, um einen präzisen Frequenzgenerator zu progr...
On this poster we show a brief summary of a pilot study done to evaluate mental Models of Students about the shape of our solar system.
It shows a categorization of different models that have been found, followed by a brief discussion and lookout.
Employing scientific practices to obtain and use information is one of the central facets of next generation science standards. Especially in quantum technology education, the ability to employ such practices is an essential skill to foster both academic success and technological development. In order to help educators design effective instructions...
Die astronomische Bildung kommt mit vielen Tücken daher. Eine bekannte Problematik sind z.B. fehlende Stützpunktvorstellungen in Bezug auf Größenordnungen verschiedener Körper im Sonnensystem.
Dieser Beitrag stellt eine einfache Augmented Reality-Anwendung (AR) vor. Mit dieser können sich Lernende eigene Verständnisse von Größen aufbauen. Hierzu nu...
Sterne und das Weltall sind bei Lernenden seit jeher hoch im Kurs, wie die Ergebnisse von Interessensstudien zeigen. Empirische Instrumente zur Erhebung von Vorstellungen oder Konzeptverständnissen Lernender zu Konzepten der Astronomie sind jedoch rar. Im vorgestellten Projekt wird die Entwicklung und Pilotierung von solchen Instrumenten für den de...
Entropy has played an essential role in the history of physics. Its mathematical definition and applications have changed over time till today. In this paper, we first review the historical evolution of these various points of view, from the thermodynamic definition to information entropy from Shannon in classical physics, up to the modern concept...
Sektormodelle sind Anschauungsmodelle für nicht-euklidische Geometrie. Sie wurden entwickelt, um die Grundkonzepte der allgemeinen Relativitätstheorie in zwei bzw. drei Dimensionen auf anschauliche Weise darzustellen (Zahn & Kraus, 2014; Zahn & Kraus, 2019). Für eine Einführung in die Allgemeine Relativitätstheorie kann man mit solchen Modellen bei...
Black holes are both interesting to many students and are part of several school and university curricula. However, it has not yet been documented in detail what kind of mental models of black holes students have. As such, this study qualitatively reports on the mental models of 53 university students, most of them with a non-physics major. The ges...
In diesem Beitrag stellen wir ein topologisches Modell für Quantenverschränkung vor. Das Modell kann auch ohne Kenntnis der mathematischen Hintergründe genutzt werden, um das Konzept der Ununterscheidbarkeit und des Zufalls in der Quantenphysik erfahrbar zu machen. Unser Ansatz basiert auf der geometrischen Deutung der Topologie eines einzelnen, so...
With the increasing industrial relevance of new quantum technologies, a well educated quantum workforce becomes increasingly crucial and raises important questions. What are the expectations regarding the future relevance of second generation quantum technologies? And what are the requirements for the workforce in the coming quantum industry? What...
In this article, we investigated differences in the effects of student-owned smartphones (BYOD) and provided smartphones (pool) on mathematics modeling competence development and cognitive load. Therefore, we conducted an intervention study, used a Rasch model and applied a mixed model ANOVA to investigate the competence development (n = 176) as we...
With new quantum technologies and new applications comes a new need for specialists, the new quantum workforce. This brings new challenges for education that the typical quantum mechanics courses for physicists do not address. Requirements for the future quantum workforce need to be collected and training programmes created. In between, there shoul...
Wer kennt es nicht? Die Messwerte sind aufgenommen, nun müssen sie noch passend präsentiert und visualisiert werden. Am besten durch ein Diagramm – aber welche Diagrammform ist geeignet? Und worauf gilt es, bei der Erstellung (oder der Auswahl im Taschenrechner) zu achten?
Wir geben in diesem Beitrag einen Überblick über die geläufigsten Diagramme...
A poorly elaborated learner’s understanding of models has been reported to be one of the major sources for learning difficulties in the quantum domain. To be able to provide physics education in schools with evidence as to how this problem can be tackled, a deeper theoretical understanding of the structure of learners’ mental models in quantum phys...
Schwebende Objekte faszinieren − die Physik dahinter findet sogar in technischen Anwendungen Verwendung. In diesem Beitrag wird ein Aufbau aus dem 3D-Drucker zur Levitation vorgestellt, der im Schülerexperiment einen Einstieg in das Thema stehende Wellen bieten kann.
In teaching sciences, models are often used to introduce, elaborate or simplify real-world phenomena or concepts. It is, however, often the case that misconceptions arise from or are facilitated by these teaching models during their transition to mental models of the individual learners. For instance, models are often seen as direct replicas of som...
Das Themengebiet der Astronomie ist sowohl für Jungen als auch für Mädchen
oft von sehr großem Interesse. Zwar sind viele Themengebiete jüngerer
Jahrgangsstufen (wie z.B. die Form der Erde oder der Wandel der Jahreszeiten)
bereits ausführlich untersucht, jedoch gibt es noch nicht viele Erkenntnisse über
die mentalen Modelle zur Astronomie außerhalb...
Mit den neuen Quantentechnologien, den QT 2.0, ergeben sich spezielle Anforderungen an die Fachkräfte, die mit diesen arbeiten werden. Ziel der vorgestellten Delphi-Studie ist die Ermittlung von Kompetenzen für und Anforderungen an die künftigen Quanten-Fachkräfte. Damit bilden die Ergebnisse dieser Delphi-Studie die Basis für die Entwicklung eines...
An easy circuit for measuring the power of a solar panel in physics classroom by using the microcontroller Arduino will be introduced in this article. The measured data is transferred via Bluetooth to the smartphone app ‘phyphox’ where it is displayed graphically. The circuitry enables measuring the power of a solar panel in different situations of...
What is the origin of quantum randomness? Why does the deterministic, unitary time development in Hilbert space (the ‘4π-realm’) lead to a probabilistic behaviour of observables in space-time (the ‘2π-realm’)? We propose a simple topological model for quantum randomness. Following Kauffmann, we elaborate the mathematical structures that follow from...
Kundt’s tube is a popular experiment commonly used in schools, in which standing sound waves are made visible inside a glass tube. A fine powder is stirred up in areas of high sound particle velocities, so that one can measure the wavelength of the sound waves by examining the patterns created. In this way, the ‘invisible’ can be made visible.
Howe...
In teaching science, models are often used to introduce, elaborate or simplify concepts or real-world phenomena. It is, however, often the case that misconceptions arise from or are facilitated by these teaching models during their transition to mental models of the individual learners. Models are often seen as direct replicas of something real-sca...
Die steigende Relevanz von Quantentechnologien in Deutschland (s. z. B. Acatech IMPULS; Konjunkturpaket der Bundesregierung) und Europa (s. z. B. Quantum Flagship) stellt die (universitäre) Ausbildung von Fachkräften in diesem Bereich vor neue Herausforderungen – nicht nur in der Physik, sondern auch in den Ingenieurwissenschaften. Ein Ziel des eur...
The Michelson interferometer is one of the key experiments in modern physics when it comes to the topic of interference (Box 1). Experiments using interferometry have a high historic relevance as well as uses in current areas of research (quantum erasers, gravitational wave detection) and are used in higher education. Because of the high cost of co...
Verständnisprozesse sind zentraler Teil des Lernens und der Bildung. Beim Erlernen von Quantenphysik sind diese Prozesse jedoch oft durch klassische Vorstellungen blockiert. Zur genaueren Erörterung dieser Problematik wird eine Studie vorgestellt, die klassische und quantenphysikalische mentale Modelle von Lernenden erhebt und zu dem allgemeinen Mo...
Quantentechnologien gewinnen rasant an Bedeutung und "Quantum Awareness" wird auch im In-genieurwesen immer wichtiger. Damit ergeben sich in der universitären Lehre neue Herausforde-rungen zur Ausbildung von "Quantum Engineers". Hier setzt das Projekt an: Es werden Kenntnisse und Kompetenzen im Bereich der Quanteninformationstechnologien identifizi...
We argue that the usual Bloch sphere is insufficient in various aspects for the representation of qubits in quantum information theory. For example, spin flip operations with the quaternions IJK=e2πi2=−1 and JIK=+1 cannot be distinguished on the Bloch sphere. We show that a simple knot theoretic extension of the Bloch sphere representation is suffi...
The Heegaard splitting of SU(2) is a particularly useful representation for quantum phases of spin j-representation arising in the mapping S1→S3, which can be related to (2j,2) torus knots in Hilbert space. We show that transitions to homotopically equivalent knots can be associated with gauge invariance, and that the same mechanism is at the heart...
In teaching sciences, models are often used to introduce, elaborate or simplify real-world phenomena or concepts. It is, however, often the case that misconceptions arise from or are facilitated by these teaching models during their transition to mental models of the individual learners. In particular, models are often seen as direct replicas of so...
Die interessante Frage, wie tief die Temperatur eigentlich sinken kann, ist experimentell gar nicht so einfach zu beantworten. In diesem Beitrag wird ein mögliches Experiment mit einem digitalen Temperatur- und Drucksensor beschrieben. Passend dazu wurde ein Video des Experiments erstellt, welches ergänzend oder auch alternativ zum Real-Experiment...
![The paper strip model for the phase factor exp[+i(p/2)ϕ]: An odd number...](publication/331952454/figure/fig1/AS:11431281388000705@1745157240946/The-paper-strip-model-for-the-phase-factor-exp-ip-2ph-An-odd-number-of-twists_Q320.jpg)
A generalization of the famous Dirac belt trick opens up the way to a haptic model for quantum phases of fermions and bosons in Hilbert space based on knot theory. We introduce a simple paper strip model as an aid for visualization of the quantum phases before and after Hopf-mapping, which can be extended to arbitrary spin states with almost no mat...
Die Quantenphysik ist als abstrakte Beschreibung von Prozessen erst am Ende der Schulzeit eine Thematik des Physikunterrichts. Bis zur Sekundarstufe II haben sich die Schülerinnen und Schüler aber bereits aufgrund des Spiralcurriculums mittels klassischer Beschreibungen dem Konstrukt des Atoms genähert. In der Oberstufe selbst werden sie dann meist...
Kurzfassung Kugelschwingungen können anhand der Anzahl und Lage ihrer Knotenflächen klassifiziert werden. Die Geometrie kann allerdings nicht einfach in zwei Dimensionen dargestellt werden. Ein Lösungsansatz ist daher die Darstellung mittels Animationen und 3D-gedruckten haptischen Modellen. Dieser Ansatz bietet eine Möglichkeit, das Lernen von Kug...
Based on a geometric view on the famous Dirac belt trick in terms of a Möbius strip, we propose a simple haptic model for spin states as standing waves in non-trivial geometry. We compare two representations of the model: the spinor representation in SU(2), which geometrically is described by 'Dirac belt' states on S 3, and the well-known Bloch-sph...
Vibration modes in spherical geometry can be classified based on the number and position of nodal planes. However, the geometry of these planes is non-trivial and cannot be easily displayed in two dimensions. We present 3D-printed models of those vibration modes, enabling a haptic approach for understanding essential features of bound states in qua...
