Teaching Fluids to IPLS Students from a Microscopic Viewpoint

Abstract

For introductory life science students, fluid dynamics is a topic of great relevance, yet difficult to understand conceptually. This pilot study focuses on implementing and assessing curricular interventions to help students understand pressure, vacuums, and pressure gradients. Our pedagogical strategy was to focus on mechanistic reasoning and a multiple-scale view of fluids. Student learning was assessed through open-ended conceptual questions administered before and after instruction. Initial results show that significant gains were achieved.

Using the resources framework to design, assess, and refine interventions on pressure in fluids

“…Internal structure is expected within the resources framework because resources that are used together frequently can become compiled into a new single resource [68]. Given our data, we cannot claim that all of our students could unpack the compiled resources in a normative way, though we have seen that most of our students did improve their understanding of vacuums [58].…”

“…Their success led us to adopt a microscopic approach (where feasible) as students constructed their understanding of fluids. When using the microscopic approach for the ideal gas law, we measured large gains in our own students' understanding of vacuums [58].…”