Students have several misconceptions about thermodynamics. However, an understanding of basic concepts in this branch of physics remains fundamental to explain thermal phenomena. The purpose of this activity was to extend students' conceptual understanding of heat, temperature, energy, and thermal insulators and conductors. Two groups of students…

The achievement of a proper conceptual change is a challenge for students since there are some constraint-based interactions including different ontological categories with the well-known dichotomy of matter or process. To mitigate this state of affairs, more instructional sequences with pedagogical approaches are needed because many students,…

Physical and virtual labs have unique capabilities that can influence how students learn from them. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of physical and virtual manipulatives on students' learning of heat and temperature and to examine the influence of various combinations of physical and virtual manipulatives. A total of 205…

We report on the study of student difficulties regarding a heat engine in the context of a Stirling cycle by the method of measurement. An in-class test about a Stirling engine with a regenerator was taken by three classes, and the students were asked to perform one of the most basic activities--calculate the efficiency of the heat engine. Our…

This study has proposed a simple method to show the convective heat transfer. The object in this study is an air conditioner (AC) as a simple case of convection. In addition, AC is also easy to find in the class because most classrooms in Indonesia installed AC. Usually, a visualization needs special software (i.e. MatLab or others) and good…

The aim of this study is to examine the "Knowledge of Student Understanding (KSU) of pre-service science teachers on "Heat and Temperature" topics. The sample of the research consists of 268 pre-service teachers studying at the 4th grade in the science teaching program of five different universities in Turkey. This research is a…

Students hold many alternative conceptions of thermal physics which are very resistant to change. A conceptual change strategy, the thinking frames approach, based on evidence from educational research was used to address commonly held naïve conceptions about heat in a series of thermal physics lessons. Students' gains in conceptual understanding…

Physical principles are involved in almost any aspect of cooking. Here we analyse the specific process of baking pizzas, deriving in simple terms the baking times for two different situations: for a brick oven in a pizzeria and a modern metallic oven at home. Our study is based on fundamental thermodynamic principles relevant to the cooking…

Although students are expected to finish school having a solid understanding of scientific concepts, they graduate from universities maintaining their former misconceptions in several fields, like physics. This study aims at validating the Thermal Concept Evaluation (TCE) test for university student's misconceptions of thermal concepts in everyday…

To enhance student's understanding of basic engineering concepts, engineering education should include more active learning in its curricula. This article purposed to develop an active learning module for mechanical engineering students through a commercial finite element package. Kolb Learning Cycle was employed as the fundamental pedagogic of…

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…

Lab activities typically involve phenomena that are invisible to the naked eye. For example, in thermodynamics transfer of heat and temperature changes are perceived by the sense of touch or indirectly observed by the use of thermometers. New tools can be introduced to increase the opportunities for talking science. In this paper, we explore…

The most important indicator of meaningful learning in science education is that the students learn and often encounter in their daily life in the description. To be able to implement this, students need to be a good science literate. This study was carried out in order to reveal to what extent the teacher candidates can explain the relationship…

Comfort whilst camping overnight during outdoor pursuits is based on pain free and warm sleeping arrangements and is highly dependent on the performance of the sleeping bag and sleeping mat. In adventurous and challenging situations, performance can contribute to safety and expedition success. From the manufacturer's point of view, thermal…

In the case of Chemistry subjects at the higher middle level, students tend to have a low performance in terms of academic exploration, either because of lack of motivation or lack of preparation in previous courses. In order to improve not only the academic performance of students in some topics of thermodynamics, but also the quality of…