(powerpoint presentation)

The Physics Education Research Group at University of Maryland has been studying student learning of quantum mechanics. Our previously reported research shows that student difficulties exist with classical concepts that are prerequisite for learning quantum mechanics. In this talk, we report detailed studies of student difficulties in quantum mechanics arising from confusions with the classical concept of energy.

We investigated student difficulties in learning quantum mechanics in an upper division quantum course at the University of Maryland. A set of exam questions and interviews has been developed to probe student understandings of the quantum wavefunction. We find that many students are confused about the relation between the wavefunction and the kinetic energy and often appear to interpret the wave function as an energy. They often display a strong "friction-like" model in which the wave function "loses energy" in tunneling through a barrier.

Probability plays a critical role in making sense of quantum physics, but most science and engineering undergraduates have very little experience with the topic. A probabilistic interpretation of a physical system, even at a classical level, is often completely new to them, and the relevant fundamental concepts such as the probability distribution and probability density are rarely understood.