From literature, we know that making the connections between mathematics and physics is not trivial for most students, even at the advanced level. In the specific context of partial derivatives in thermodynamics, research suggests that making explicit connections between the mathematics and the physics is necessary to foster student understanding.…

High level, abstract engineering thinking and design is a subject that is hardly addressed in current curricula for secondary education. This is contradictory to the increasing need for more in depth STEM education in secondary schools dictated by the evolution of our society towards an ever more STEM based information society. In this paper an…