EAGER: Preparing High-School Physics Teachers for the Quantum Revolution through a Scalable Teacher-Network Model

The United States is entering a "quantum revolution," but quantum ideas and applications remain largely absent from high-school physics classrooms. High-school physics teachers are a key leverage point for broadening early exposure to quantum information science and quantum sensing, yet most teachers have had limited preparation and often lack local colleagues and subject-specific professional development. This project will test an unproven but potentially transformative approach: repurposing an established, teacher-driven national network—the Physics of Living Systems Teacher Network—as scalable infrastructure for preparing high-school physics teachers to incorporate accessible, age-appropriate quantum topics into their teaching. The project will (1) develop and deliver a sequence of online workshops with associated classroom-ready resources; (2) pilot small peer-based "Quantum Curriculum Circles" (QCCs) that help teachers adapt quantum content to local curricular constraints and move from interest to classroom use; and (3) conduct an embedded, mixed-method study (brief surveys, participation data, and interviews) to identify which supports most effectively increase teacher readiness, instructional confidence, and self-reported classroom incorporation of quantum content. By enabling more high-school physics teachers to introduce quantum ideas and applications, the project strengthens the early educational pipeline into the future quantum workforce and broadens students' opportunity to see quantum science as part of modern physics and as a possible pathway for themselves. Because the model is online, lightweight, and peer-supported, it is designed to reach teachers who are geographically dispersed or professionally isolated, including those in rural or under-resourced settings. The project will produce openly shareable workshop materials, adaptable classroom resources, and a transferable QCC design framework that can be adopted by other teacher networks, professional societies, and school systems to support teacher learning in quantum and other emerging STEM domains. The project advances knowledge about how emerging scientific domains can enter secondary curricula through network-based professional learning. It will generate design-oriented evidence about what quantum entry points are feasible and valuable for high-school teachers, what barriers constrain adoption, and what combinations of supports (workshops, resources, and QCC participation) are most strongly associated with increased readiness and uptake. Methodologically, the project will contribute exploratory measures and analytic strategies for studying teacher learning and curricular incorporation in a naturalistic, teacher-driven system where participation is voluntary and heterogeneous—producing feasibility evidence and design principles that can motivate and shape a larger, more definitive future study. 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. NSF Award ID: 2624726 | Program: 01002627DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT | Principal Investigator: Eric Mazur | Institution: Harvard University, CAMBRIDGE, MA | Award Amount: $400,000 View on NSF Award Search: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/show-award/?AWD_ID=2624726 View on Research.gov: https://www.research.gov/awardapi-service/v1/awards/2624726.html