Bypassing dense math, kids play their way to quantum science

As conventionally taught, quantum mechanics is full of esoteric squiggles. To develop intuition about superposition and entanglement, undergraduate and graduate students grapple with complex mathematical rules in what can feel like a years-long hazing ritual.

There are now less painful options, as educators are partnering with academic physicists to create games to teach quantum mechanics. At this year’s APS Global Physics Summit in Denver, physics outreach experts gathered to show off a range of card, board, and video games that are more approachable than bra-ket notation.

The games support physicists’ ongoing call to develop a more quantum-literate workforce, which is in high demand: Job postings in the U.S. looking for quantum skills tripled between 2011 and 2024, according to a 2025 MIT report.

One recurring theme in quantum game design: no complicated rules. “I do not want to talk about the rules,” said Seokyong Choi, who has designed several games as outreach manager at South Korea’s Center for Quantum Nanoscience. “Whenever I play board games with my kids, the first round is not that fun because we have to figure out the rules.”

To avoid confusing rules, Choi adds quantum twists to popular games. “Superposition bingo,” for example, is regular bingo, except the card has a couple squares that contain two numbers instead of one. If the caller picks one of two numbers in that square, the other number becomes defunct. This is meant to teach the effect of measurement on a system in a superposition of two states. Choi’s adaptation of snakes and ladders teaches entanglement. Each player moves along the board according to their own dice roll, but also the next player’s. So each player’s motion is correlated, or “entangled,” with the next player’s behavior. Choi’s center offers these games for free download online.

A free mobile app-based game called Kitty Q, developed by ctd.qmat, a German research consortium, also tries to lower the barrier to entry to quantum. Kitty Q is designed for 11- to 14-year-olds, the age when children in Germany first learn physics. “You do not need to understand any of the physics concepts to play it,” said Matthias Vojta, a physicist at the Dresden University of Technology, who contributed to Kitty Q’s development. “That was a goal from the outset.”

Instead, Kitty Q is designed like a virtual escape room. In the game, the player enters a dollhouse-like box with a purring cat that is part-dead and part-alive. (You can decide how dead or alive the cat is by swiping its face.) When a player solves a quantum-inspired puzzle in one room, a clue to another puzzle is unlocked. Ultimately, the game ends in a room called the “Quantum Hall.” For those wanting to delve deeper into the science, each puzzle unlocks an article in an in-game resource called Kittypedia.

Kitty Q manages to include cutting-edge quantum concepts. One puzzle, in which cockroaches can only walk around the edge of water pools in a sink, illustrates the concept of edge states, a condition in some materials where electric current only runs on the boundary. “The key point for the kids to realize is something can only travel along the edge,” says Vojta.

These games also often feature the cultural charm of their countries of origin. Choi has created a game called “quantum ttakji,” based on a traditional Korean throwing game known in the West for appearing in the 2021 Korean TV series, Squid Game. In one form of ttakji, you fold paper into a rectangular packet and place it on the ground. Another player throws their packet onto yours to try to flip it. In Choi’s version, instead of paper packets, players use 3D printed dice of unusual shapes. To win, a player must flip the other player’s dice onto a specific face. The other faces correspond to a “superposition” state.

Kitty Q also features German puns. One puzzle involves cake called “donauwelle,” which translates to “Danube wave cake,” a nod to waves in quantum mechanics. Another puzzle involves an elf. The puzzle’s solution hinges on the word for “elf” and “eleven” being homophones in German. (They rewrote the clues in the English version.)

Notably, non-physicists played leading roles in the design of these games. Choi trained as a sociologist and has worked in marketing. She tests her games on her own kids. For KittyQ, the original idea of a mobile app came from ctd.qmat’s press officer, Katja Lesser, during the pandemic, as a way to engage kids while schools were shut down. She recruited Philipp Stollenmayer, a mobile game developer, to design and create the game, which was released in 2021 and has since had 600,000 downloads, 470,000 of which are the English language version.

“You need a professional to develop and design the thing — otherwise you will never reach such a large audience,” says Vojta. “If this would have been some piece of educational software developed and written by physicists, this never would work.”

When designing Kitty Q, the physicists and non-physicists entered fun but contentious arguments over the appropriate level of technical detail to include. “We discussed every single Kittypedia text for hours,” said Lesser. “Every time, there was a little fight between the professional quantum physicist and the communication person who wanted it simpler.”

“Physicists have science that is dear to their hearts,” said Vojta. “The PR people and the educators want to simplify it. We have to cope with that.”