Collaborative Research: Research and curriculum development in thermal physics

物理（13）这个项目是一个正在进行的协调研究和研究为基础的课程开发热物理，主要是在先进水平的本科课程计划的延续。数据是通过一对一的学生访谈、测试前和测试后的书面问题以及多项选择调查收集的。然后，该研究被应用到课程材料的开发，旨在提高学生的理解与主动学习方法以前被证明是有效的物理教学的方式相一致。之前的支持促成了多个访谈协议、诊断问题和调查问题的制定。项目工作人员已经确定了热物理学中的几个具体的概念性困难，并开发了一些初步的课程材料，这些材料已经在国内机构进行了试点测试，以解决这些困难。该项目正在增加现有的数据库，并将现有的工作和产品扩展到热物理学的新主题。目前正在评估现有材料和在该项目期间开发的材料在解决研究确定的学生困难方面的有效性。正在编制辅助材料，以便将我们的课程材料更充分地纳入课程，并向教员提供背景资料和评估问题。我们现正准备一套辅助材料，包括测验前和测验后的测验、家庭作业练习，以及一份载有内容背景、研究结果和实施建议的教师简介。材料适用于从经典热力学和/或统计力学角度教授的课程。该项目以高年级课程为重点，扩大了已经广泛用于入门课程的标准物理教育研究方法的适用性。从这方面的项目的结果是非常感兴趣的物理教育研究社区和教师的高级物理课程。通过出版物、在物理学家、物理教育工作者和教育研究人员的国家和国际会议上的演讲以及通过在参与机构的试点测试传播研究成果和课程材料，有助于改善国家和国际热物理教学。这项工作还有其他跨学科的组成部分。研究和课程材料的一个焦点是物理和相关数学之间的联系。此外，物理课程的调查结果正在与化学，工程和地质科学的类似课程的结果进行比较。其目的是比较这些人群中的具体困难或信念的患病率和持久性，并探讨不同学科的具体方法和教学策略影响学生学习热力学的程度。

Physics (13)This project is a continuation of an ongoing program of coordinated research and research-based curriculum development in thermal physics, primarily in the advanced-level undergraduate courses. Data are gathered using one-on-one student interviews, written pre- and post-test questions, and multiple-choice surveys. The research is then applied to the development of curricular materials intended to improve student understanding in a manner consistent with active-learning methods previously shown to be effective in physics instruction. Prior support has resulted in the development of several interview protocols, diagnostic questions, and survey questions. Project staff have identified several specific conceptual difficulties in thermal physics, and have developed some preliminary curricular materials that have been pilot tested at the home institutions to address these difficulties. This project is adding to the existing data corpus and extending existing work and products to new topics in thermal physics. Existing materials and materials being developed during this project are being evaluated for their effectiveness at addressing student difficulties identified through research. Ancillary materials that integrate our curricular materials more fully into courses and provide instructors with background information and assessment questions are being developed. A set of supporting materials, including pre- and post-tests, homework exercises, and a brief instructors' guide with background on the content and our research findings as well as suggestions for implementation, are being prepared. Materials are applicable to courses taught from a classical thermodynamics and/or a statistical mechanics perspective. With its sharp focus on upper-division courses, this project is expanding the applicability of standard physics education research methods already widely used in introductory courses. Results from this aspect of the project are of great interest to the physics education research community and to instructors of advanced physics courses. The dissemination of both research results and of curricular materials in publications, in presentations at national and international meetings of physicists, physics educators and education researchers, and via pilot testing at participating institutions is contributing to the improvement of instruction in thermal physics nationally and internationally. There are additional interdisciplinary components to this work. One focus of both the research and the curricular materials is the connections between the physics and associated mathematics. In addition, results of the investigations in physics courses are being compared to the results from analogous courses in chemistry, engineering, and geological sciences. The aim is to compare the prevalence and persistence of specific difficulties or beliefs among these populations and to explore the extent to which the different discipline-specific approaches and instructional strategies affect student learning of thermodynamics.