Research: Examining the impact of mechanical objects in students learning of thermodynamics-related engineering problems

随着现代社会技术的快速发展，未来的工程师充分学习工程的基本概念是很重要的，这样他们就可以在他们的职业生涯中应用这些概念到一系列新的应用中。大学里的许多工程课程都涉及教授抽象的概念，这些概念通常对学生来说很难理解。例如，“热力学”是一门重要的课程，它涉及到学习热、能量和机械功之间的关系。众所周知，热力学对许多学生来说是一门很难的课程，因为课堂上的一些概念，如热量和能量，是抽象的。教授难的工程学科的一种方法是使用学生可以触摸和操纵的物理或机械物体来演示重要的概念。本项目探讨了在热力学课程中使用和评估机械物体作为教学工具的新方法，并认为这项工作的结果可以应用于其他工程课程。本项目考察人与物之间的相互作用，这是工程学的一个重要而关键的方面，研究这些相互作用如何影响对具有挑战性概念的理解。项目中要解决的主要问题是工程教育和实践的基础问题：机械物体在学习工程相关概念中的价值是什么？本研究在混合方法设计中使用准实验，其中在热力学课程的几个问题解决活动中使用不同的机械物体。物理演示关键的热力学概念，涉及到传统问题，如热功转换，理想气体行为，或液-气相变过程可以通过使用机械物体来增强。例如，汽车发动机中典型的“活塞-气缸”结构可以用一个简单的机械物体来建模，该机械物体由注射器中的柱塞和集成的温度传感器组成，以物理地说明压缩、膨胀、功、热、温度和压力之间的关系。研究结果将被分析，以提供一个清晰的画面，如何使用机械对象支持工程活动，以及个体差异如何影响学习过程。在项目结束时，研究人员将开发对象使用的类型学和描述解决工程相关问题所涉及的认知过程的心理模型。最后，这项工作的结果将为如何将机械物体用作教育工具提供指导。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

As technology quickly advances in modern society, it is important that the engineers of tomorrow fully learn the basic concepts of engineering so that they can apply these concepts throughout their careers to a range of new applications. Many engineering courses in college involve teaching abstract concepts that are often difficult for students to understand. For example, "Thermodynamics" is an important course that involves learning about relationships between heat, energy, and mechanical work. Thermodynamics is known to be a difficult course for many students since some of the concepts in the class, such as heat and energy, are abstract. One method for teaching difficult engineering subjects is to use physical or mechanical objects that a student can touch and manipulate in order to demonstrate important concepts. This project examines new approaches for the use and evaluation of mechanical objects as teaching tools in a thermodynamics course with the idea that results from this work can then be applied to additional engineering courses. This project examines person-object interactions, a significant and critical aspect of engineering, to examine how these interactions affect comprehension of challenging concepts. The primary question to be addressed in the project is fundamental to engineering education and practice: What is the value of mechanical objects in learning engineering related concepts? This study uses quasi-experiments in a mixed methods design where different mechanical objects are used in several problem-solving activities in Thermodynamics classes. Physically demonstrating key thermodynamics concepts, involved in traditional problems, such as the conversion of heat to work, ideal gas behavior, or liquid-vapor phase change processes can be augmented with the use of mechanical objects. For example, a typical "piston-cylinder" arrangement in an automobile engine can be modeled with a simple mechanical object that consists of a plunger in a syringe with an integrated temperature sensor to physically illustrate relationships between compression, expansion, work, heat, temperature, and pressure. The study results will be analyzed in order to provide a clear picture of how the use of mechanical objects supports engineering activities and how individual differences affect the learning process. At the end of the project, the researchers will develop typologies of object use and mental models describing the cognitive processes involved in solving engineering related problems. Finally, the results from this work will provide guidance as to how mechanical objects can be used as educational tools.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.