Developing an Outcomes Assessment Instrument for Identifying Engineering Student Misconceptions in Thermal and Transport Sciences

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This project is creating an outcomes assessment instrument to identify engineering student misconceptions in thermal and transport science courses, such as thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, heat transfer, and mass transfer. The instrument focuses on misconceptions concerning fundamental molecular-level and atomic-level phenomena, including heat, light, diffusion, chemical reactions, and electricity, which differ in significant ways from observable, macroscopic causal behavior.Important student misconceptions identified by surveying experienced engineering faculty are validated through student interviews for inclusion in a multiple-choice pencil-and-paper instrument patterned after successful misconception instruments such as the Force Concept Inventory. The instrument is being field tested to demonstrate its validity and reliability and its usefulness for both course-level and program-level assessment of student misconceptions in thermal and transport science topics. The instrument is designed to allow for pre-testing (at the beginning of a course or curriculum) and post-testing (at the end of a course or curriculum) to measure changes in student mental model development.