University Students’ Understanding of Thermal Physics in Everyday Contexts

Georgiou, Helen; Sharma, Manjula

doi:10.1007/s10763-011-9320-1

Cited by 28 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…In the first, we show how student understanding of energy may not be due to the welldocumented statement that energy is "used up" [9], as suggested by each individual question, and may instead be due to a wholly separate difficulty. In the second, we show that nearly all students use the idea of "coldness" as a kind of energy when reasoning about energy flow, consistent with the literature [10,11], but that they are more likely to do so in some scenarios than in others. In both examples, we find evidence that student reasoning depends on the context and system represented in each problem.…”

Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 84%

Using multiple survey questions about energy to uncover elements of middle school student reasoning

Wittmann¹,

Rogers²,

Alvarado³

et al. 2018

2017 Physics Education Research Conference Proceedings

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Abstract. One power of middle school physics teaching is its focus on conceptual understanding, rather than mathematical modeling. Teaching energy in middle school allows one to focus on the conceptual ideas, metaphors, and analogies we use to make sense of the topic. In the Next Generation Science Standards, energy is both a core disciplinary idea in the physical sciences and a crosscutting concept. In this paper, we provide several examples of seeming contradictions in student responses to similar questions. For example, students think differently about energy flow to the air or the ground. They also think differently about energy flow in cold and hot situations, though not necessarily as expected. Analyzing these results carefully, in particular when comparing and contrasting seemingly similar questions, may help both researchers and teachers listen for ideas, target instruction, and recognize learning more effectively.

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Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 84%

Using multiple survey questions about energy to uncover elements of middle school student reasoning

Wittmann¹,

Rogers²,

Alvarado³

et al. 2018

2017 Physics Education Research Conference Proceedings

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“…One would expect a scientist to say "there is a lot of thermal energy in the kitchen" or to reformulate the statement as "the temperature in the kitchen is high". Interestingly, although scientific concepts such as heat, (thermal) energy and temperature are centuries old, misconceptions and misuses are still common, even among university students of thermal physics (Georgiou and Sharma 2012), and may hinder learning and understanding. Perhaps the difficulties stem from the fact that thermal physics concepts are, fundamentally, statistical concepts, while our education systems favour deterministic approaches and give much less importance to probability, statistics and stochastic processes, topics that are collectively described by the term stochastics.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Negligent killing of scientific concepts: the stationarity case

Koutsoyiannis

Montanari

2015

Hydrological Sciences Journal

196

119

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In scientific vocabulary, the term "process" is used to denote change in time. Even a stationary process describes a system changing in time, rather than a static one that keeps a constant state all the time. However, this is often missed, which has led to misuse of the term "nonstationarity" as a synonym of "change". A simple rule to avoid such misuse is to answer the question: can the change be predicted in deterministic terms? Only if the answer is positive is it legitimate to invoke nonstationarity. In addition, we should have in mind that models are made to simulate the future rather than to describe the past; the past is characterized by observations (data). Usually future changes are not deterministically predictable and thus the models should, on the one hand, be stationary and, on the other hand, describe in stochastic terms the full variability, originating from all agents of change. Even if the past evolution of the process of interest contains changes explainable in deterministic terms (e.g. urbanization), it is better to describe the future conditions in stationary terms, after "stationarizing" the past observations, i.e. adapting them to represent the future conditions. Meurtre par imprudence de concepts scientifiques: le cas de la stationnarité Résumé Dans le vocabulaire scientifique, le terme « processus » est utilisé pour désigner une évolution au cours du temps. Même un processus stationnaire décrit un système changeant au cours du temps, plutôt qu'un système statique gardant le même état tout le temps. Cependant, cela est souvent occulté, ce qui a conduit à utiliser de manière abusive le terme « non-stationnarité » en tant que synonyme de « changement ». Une règle simple pour éviter de telles utilisations abusives est de répondre à la question : le changement peut-il être prédit en termes déterministes ? C'est seulement si la réponse est positive qu'il est légitime d'évoquer la non-stationnarité. En outre, nous devrions avoir à l'esprit que les modèles sont faits pour simuler l'avenir plutôt que pour décrire le passé ; le passé est plutôt caractérisé par les observations (données). Habituellement, les évolutions futurs ne sont pas prévisibles de manière déterministe et donc les modèles devraient, d'une part, être stationnaires et, d'autre part, décrire en termes stochastiques la variabilité totale, qui provient de tous les facteurs de changement. Même si l'évolution passée du processus étudié contient des changements explicables en termes déterministes (par exemple l'urbanisation), encore une fois il est préférable de décrire les conditions futures en termes stationnaires, après avoir « stationnarisé » les observations passées, c'est-à-dire après les avoir adaptées pour représenter les conditions futures.

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“…We regularly touch objects that feel warm or cold. A common idea among students is to discuss "coldness" as an energy entity that is transferred in some thermal scenarios [5][6][7][8]. This idea of coldness has been observed as a persistent idea that conflicts with the understanding of thermal energy.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Problematizing "cold" with K12 Science Teachers

Alvarado¹,

Wittmann²,

Rogers³

et al. 2016

2016 Physics Education Research Conference Proceedings

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In the Maine Physical Sciences Partnership (MainePSP), we have observed that students improve the way they analyze thermal energy after instruction. Still, many of them continue to use the idea that "coldness" transfers. Past researchers have identified that "cold" is commonly perceived as a separate heat energy. Nevertheless, we have not found specific activities to address this idea. We present analysis of students' conceptual understanding of energy transfer and how the use of coldness as an entity plays a role in it. We explore how both ideas interact with each other using two different multiple choice items. To illustrate the difficulty of addressing student difficulties with coldness, we analyze a collaborative session among K-12 teachers who modeled energy transfers in scenarios similar to the student items and had to work to reconcile the conflict between the two models. Our study shows how the concept of coldness as an energy entity can co-exist and be in conflict with the idea of thermal energy, even after instruction.

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University Students’ Understanding of Thermal Physics in Everyday Contexts

Cited by 28 publications

References 21 publications

Using multiple survey questions about energy to uncover elements of middle school student reasoning

Using multiple survey questions about energy to uncover elements of middle school student reasoning

Negligent killing of scientific concepts: the stationarity case

Problematizing "cold" with K12 Science Teachers

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