Collaborative: Research: Creating a Common Thermodynamics

热力学和随机分子运动的基本统计图像是生物学的基础。为了理解从细胞中的呼吸和光合作用到生态系统的生存和稳定的过程，学生需要很好地了解能量，能量的保存，能量的可用性和能量的转化。由于生物学是关于组织和结构的产生、维持和进化的，因此信息及其统计机械伙伴熵的概念至关重要。学生通常会在生物学、化学和物理学导论课上遇到能量、焓和熵。但这三个学科所采取的方法可能截然不同。通常，他们会做出不同的（未陈述的）假设，导致热力学定律的陈述在不同的类中看起来不同。在这个项目中，我们与来自四所大学的物理学家、化学家和生物学家组成的跨学科小组合作，（1）就共同的内容和代表方案达成一致;（2）创建一个文献调查，汇集来自化学、生物学和物理教育研究的关于学生对热力学概念的理解的结果;（3）研究学生对能量、熵、扩散和随机过程的基本概念的理解和态度;（4）创建网络材料，包括用于生物学家物理学入门课程的主动学习教学的文本和材料;（5）创建并验证一个工具，以评估学生在这些主题上的学习收获。

Thermodynamics and the underlying statistical picture of random molecular motions are fundamental in biology. In order to make sense of processes ranging from respiration and photosynthesis in the cell to the survival and stabilization of ecosystems students need a good understanding of energy, its conservation, its availability, and its transformation. Since biology is about the generation, maintenance, and evolution of organization and structure, the concept of information and its statistical mechanical partner, entropy, is critical. Students typically encounter energy, enthalpy, and entropy in introductory biology, chemistry, and physics classes. But the approach taken in the three disciplines can be dramatically different. Often, they make different (unstated) assumptions resulting in statements of the laws of thermodynamics that look different in different classes. This lack of consistency raises barriers to students' development of a coherent understanding of these important ideas.In this project, we work with an interdisciplinary group of physicists, chemists, and biologists at four universities to (1) come to an agreement on a common content and representational scheme; (2) create a literature survey bringing together results about student understanding of concepts in thermodynamics from chemistry, biology, and physics education research; (3) study student understandings of and attitudes about the basic concepts of energy, entropy, diffusion, and stochastic processes; (4) create web materials including text and materials for active-learning instruction for use in an introductory physics course for biologists; and (5) create and validate an instrument to evaluate students' learning gains on these topics.