Teaching quantum to high school students

This paper describes and provides examples of getting high school students interested in quantum information and then teaching them some aspects that draw them in and keeps their attention. These examples are informal education for afterschool programs that can begin with a presentation during a regular science class period. The goal of this paper is to provide methods that have been successful and can be duplicated in other geographic locations globally. These methods include providing other volunteers, such as Optica and SPIE Student Chapter members at colleges and universities and professionals in industry, with easy-to-follow written materials and easy to acquire hands- on materials for low-cost laboratory experiences. The importance of bringing the hands-on experiences to the high school students early in the process is highlighted and getting them to understand that the quantum world is basically at the atomic level and not the macroscopic world we experience every day. While there are many programs worldwide aimed at teaching quantum to high school students, they each have their strengths and challenges with a variety of outcomes. Here the author provides the best practices he has found from some of these programs and merges them with his own experiences in the optics and photonics education outreach endeavors to deliver a concise path for quantum outreach volunteers to use in their programs.