written by Ian W. Founds, Paul J. Emigh, and Corinne A. Manogue

Students often struggle with the many partial derivatives used in the study of thermodynamics. This project explores how students respond to chain rule problems in an upper-level undergraduate thermodynamics course. This project's dataset is composed of anonymized student responses to two such problems. We used an emergent coding method to sort responses by solution method. Observed solution methods include variable and differential substitution, implicit differentiation, differential division, and chain rule diagrams. The change of students' solution methods between as signments was also observed. Responses were later analyzed to identify conceptual errors . Students make specific errors that provide insight into their lack of conceptual understanding of the solution methods.

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Last Modified February 26, 2018

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