C. Kautz, P. Heron, P. Shaffer, and L. McDermott, Am. J. Phys., 73 (11), 1064-1071 (2005).
Evidence from research indicates that many undergraduate science and engineering majors have seriously flawed microscopic models for the pressure and temperature in an ideal gas. In…
I. Founds, P. Emigh, and C. Manogue, PERC 2017 Proceedings, 136-139.
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…
J. Thompson, B. Bucy, and D. Mountcastle, PERC 2005 Proceedings, 77-80.
We are engaged in a research project to study teaching and learning in upper-level thermal physics courses. We have begun to explore student functional understanding of mathematical…
B. Bucy, J. Thompson, and D. Mountcastle, PERC 2005 Proceedings, 81-84.
We report data on upper-level student understanding of entropy and the Second Law of Thermodynamics when comparing the isothermal and free expansions of an ideal gas. Data from pre-…
T. Smith, W. Christensen, and J. Thompson, PERC 2009 Proceedings, 277-280.
We report the rationale behind and preliminary results from a guided-inquiry conceptual worksheet (a.k.a. tutorial) dealing with Carnot’s efficiency and the Carnot cycle. The…