Thanks for the comment and encouragement, Daniel!

To address the feedback asking for a more guided experience, we're going to start by packaging some of our entries up into modules. There will be a physics fundamentals module, a quantum computing module, and a module about the quantum nature of light and a module (among others eventually). These will provide different suggestions for how to traverse the Atlas given a particular interest.

The "what do I do with this new knowledge?" question (which I sometimes think of as the "so what?" question) is a tougher nut to crack. To start, we plan to emphasize the applications of quantum physics in some upcoming entries (superconductors will be one). We have also considered adding dedicated sections to our existing entries that clearly lay out the applications and connections to everyday life (where they exist).

Adding on to this to address your other question on more technical math and physics at deeper levels. This is certainly something we have discussed and the project is designed to be modular to allow for deep dives. We are adding some more complex topics this summer and taking suggestions on where to go next. We intend to support and expand the project well beyond the initial NSF funding so yes, we will add more. Let us know what you would like to see and we can try to make it happen :)

Thanks for the thorough reply! As a science communicator I see the value in focusing on awareness, appreciation and interest, but your project excites me as a teacher, too, and it's great to hear that you are actively thinking about teachers as an audience for this content.

Just to chime in, thus far our survey results have shown us that members of the general public who use The Quantum Atlas that even though the topic is complex, the Atlas made it more accessible. All but one person said that they learned something new about quantum physics. Most identified Quantum Measurement, Entanglement or Superposition as concepts that they learned more about.

We also have some self-report on the pages they visited (with the difference between Quantum vs. Classical mentioned the most). That's not surprising given that the website encourages novices to start their quantum journey with that entry.

The visuals, the layout of the concept entries, and the clear explanations on those pages were mentioned as three core areas that helped make quantum physics more accessible to users.

Thanks, Cali! That's great to hear. Feel free to reach out to us if you have questions or ideas on what we can add as you visit the site. :)

Thanks, Alexander! That's a great suggestion that we can try for next time.

Thanks for the kind words, Erica. It means a lot to us.

Thanks, Rebecca! We've played with many of the PhET simulations! I think both Emily Edwards (Co-PI) and I would be very interested in figuring out ways to collaborate.

To answer your questions: Beyond social media, which we're admittedly pretty bad at, we've presented about the Atlas at a handful of workshops and share it all the time by word of mouth. One of the things that I've been doing for a while now is including links to relevant Atlas entries in science news stories that go out on phys.org or EurekAlert (and making the communications folks in my circles aware that they can do the same). We also promoted it during a World Quantum Day Ask Me Anything on Reddit (which gave us our biggest traffic spike ever).

As for the demographics of visitors, we don't know much about their occupation beyond word of mouth (we've had students and museum exhibit designers, among others, reach out directly). In terms of countries, over the last 30 days about 40% of our traffic is from the US; all other countries are below 10% of the traffic, and India has the second spot with about 8%.

Hi Rebecca, I'll second Chris' comment that we are definitely interested in connecting about collaboration. This last year we have definitely put more effort into getting people and organizations in our networks aware of the Atlas (and linking to it). There is more interest in it now especially among teachers as you said. Let's connect and talk more about this. Thanks again for reaching out and commenting.

Rebecca, 

As part of the evaluation, my team also interviewed science educators (mostly high school physics and computer science teachers) and science communicators (who ranged from journalists, game developers, afterschool or museum program staff, and university professors doing science outreach). The two groups saw the Media Gallery as a key resource and potential place to expand by sharing out and linking to other online materials. There definitely seemed to be a desire amongst these groups to share out collective knowledge and curricula (with several citing PhET as one of the resources that they typically use).

Thanks for everyone's responses! Some other things that come to mind for potential dissemination venues include QuarkNet (https://quarknet.org/), AAPT's quantum initiatives (https://quantumforall.org/), and Perimeter Institute (https://perimeterinstitute.ca/). I'm happy to connect if you drop me an e-mail at rebecca.vieyra@colorado.edu, and we can talk through potential ways to work together.

Thanks so much, Fran!

Thanks, Dennis! It is great to hear that the Atlas worked for you. I will definitely check out your project. It sounds like it shares common themes with a different project I work on around developing the quantum information science workforce.

Thanks, Amy!

One of my personal goals for the project is to put something out there that curious people can find and learn something from. I don't have a strong motive beyond that. From this perspective, I see the Atlas as ratcheting up the accuracy and sophistication of the coverage that quantum usually gets (at least for general audiences). I really want people to feel like they can approach quantum physics and not feel hopelessly lost. I want them to visit the Atlas and come away with some confidence that they've followed the thread.

The project certainly grew up in (and now fits squarely inside) a climate of increased interest in the future quantum workforce. My Co-PI Emily Edwards can offer more specifics on how the Atlas fits in with that constellation of things (K-12 education, undergraduate education, post-bac and professional education), but in our wildest dreams maybe the Atlas serves as a gateway into a career for some folks who are quantum curious.

Well said, Chris. I agree completely. Unfortunately, quantum physics has this reputation for being mystical and possibly only understood by a few people who are in the "genius" category. I think this second element is pretty common to other science topics that appear in Hollywood movies and were simultaneously developing in the 20th century. We think this reputation creates a lot of artificial barriers.  One of our missions as a team has been to help people get to know the topic in a friendly way. We hope people walk away feeling like they can take the next step to learn more or have confidence to break into similarly complex topics.

With the increased investment in quantum science both in the private and public sectors we are seeing lots of increased interest from teachers. I think that there are some interesting research questions around how users bridge from this informal resource into something more in-depth about the larger field of quantum information science and engineering. From the design perspective and the learner side there are a lot of open questions for quantum information science education given that there is very little out there in terms of formal curricula below the upper-division undergraduate curriculum at selected institutions.

Thanks, Barbara!

Hi Lauren,

Thanks so much! We started with basic principles of quantum mechanics and recently we have gotten a few requests for more applied topics. The feedback has come from a mix of users, colleagues, and interviews. If you have a request, let us know :)

Hi Jamie,

Thanks so much for taking a look. Yes we are familiar with (and enjoy!) the quantum made simple project. Regarding evaluation, we did a large quantum interest survey at the start of the project and last year. We are in the process of writing up the data for these surveys. At a high level, we learned that the population surveyed was mediumly interested in quantum science but had very little familiarity with it outside of a few concepts like photons. The survey also probed a little about respondents preferences for informal science learning resources and media types. Camellia can comment in further detail.