With an exploratory study of science education for middle or junior high schools, this paper explains why a physics teacher endeavours to develop an updated and adapted curriculum and pedagogy to support and empower adolescents by initiating their learning in physics and moving on to quantum mechanics at their early ages (Grades 8–10) in a science program during our complex contemporary times. Furthermore, the study discusses how the teacher develops such a curriculum and utilize technological pedagogical tools to engage and encourage young students, particularly girls, to learn mathematical sciences connected to their everyday lives and lived experiences, not as a school subject but as required scientific knowledge and skills for 21st-century achievements. Such initiation can create opportunities to learn physics over a longer period of time, broaden girls’ participation, increase their self-confidence, and practise essential STEM skills such as critical thinking, problem solving, collaboration, innovation, and so forth.

Our students’ careers will increasingly involve quantum physics as industrial quantum applications grow. However, the learning of quantum concepts largely remains separated from the high school physics experience where students first form expectations of how they might use physics throughout their lives. Two primary barriers to integrating quantum into the high school context are conceptual challenges and mathematical formalism. We argue these barriers can be lowered by adopting a computationally integrated spins-first approach, which we implemented in a supplemental quantum unit. We led a cohort of high school physics teachers through this unit in self-paced professional development over two semesters. We then collaborated with this cohort to adapt the modules to improve accessibility for their students. We present the structure of our professional development activities, report on the successes and challenges thus far, and share the reflections of a teacher who is implementing these modules in his IB physics classroom.

Exposure to contemporary physics topics in secondary schools has increased substantially in recent years yet is still an understudied area with a limited body of research on this topic. We set out to examine the existing body of physics education research (PER) associated with the teaching and learning of quantum physics at the secondary level. First, we quantitatively examine research publications on this topic, looking at characteristics such as yearly output, citation index, author nationality, and publishing venue. Then, an assessment of publication trends in teaching in learning are explored. Lastly, we identify gaps in the research and propose opportunities for further inquiry. The academic search engines SCOPUS and Web of Science were used to collect publications for analysis.