Charles University in Prague

Faculty of Mathematics and Physics

ABSTRACT OF DOCTORAL THESIS

Petr Kácovský

Experiments supporting the teaching of thermodynamics at high school level

Department of Physics Education

Supervisor: doc. RNDr. Zdeněk Drozd, Ph.D.

Study programme: Physics

Study Branch: Physics Education and General Problems of Physics

Prague 2016

Univerzita Karlova v Praze

Matematicko-fyzikální fakulta

AUTOREFERÁT DISERTAČNÍ PRÁCE

Petr Kácovský

Experimenty podporující výuku termodynamiky na středoškolské úrovni

Katedra didaktiky fyziky

Vedoucí disertační práce: doc. RNDr. Zdeněk Drozd, Ph.D.

Studijní program: Fyzika

Studijní obor: Didaktika fyziky a obecné otázky fyziky

Praha 2016

Disertační práce byla vypracována na základě výsledků získaných během doktorského

studia v letech 2012-2016 na Matematicko-fyzikální fakultě Univerzity Karlovy v Praze.

Uchazeč: Petr Kácovský

Vedoucí disertační práce: doc. RNDr. Zdeněk Drozd, Ph.D. Katedra didaktiky fyziky

Matematicko-fyzikální fakulta Univerzity Karlovy

V Holešovičkách 2, 182 00 Praha 8

Školící pracoviště: Katedra didaktiky fyziky

Matematicko-fyzikální fakulta Univerzity Karlovy

V Holešovičkách 2, 182 00 Praha 8

Garant oboru: doc. RNDr. Leoš Dvořák, CSc.

Katedra didaktiky fyziky

Matematicko-fyzikální fakulta Univerzity Karlovy

V Holešovičkách 2, 182 00 Praha 8

Oponenti: doc. RNDr. Zdeněk Bochníček, Dr.

Ústav fyzikální elektroniky – fyzikální sekce

Přírodovědecká fakulta Masarykovy univerzity

Kotlářská 2, 602 00 Brno

doc. RNDr. Jan Kříž, Ph.D.

Katedra fyziky

Přírodovědecká fakulta Univerzity Hradec Králové

Náměstí Svobody 301, 500 02 Hradec Králové

Obhajoba se koná dne 24. 6. 2016 v 10:00 hodin před komisí pro obhajoby

disertačních prací v oboru F12 – Didaktika fyziky a obecné otázky fyziky na

Matematicko-fyzikální fakultě Univerzity Karlovy, V Holešovičkách 2, 182 00 Praha 8,

v posluchárně Katedry didaktiky fyziky (místnost A745).

S disertační prací je možno se seznámit na studijním oddělení doktorského studia

Matematicko-fyzikální fakulty Univerzity Karlovy, Ke Karlovu 3, 121 16 Praha 2.

6

Contents

1. Introduction – goals and structure .................................................................................................. 7

2. Research part ......................................................................................................................................... 8

2. 1. Misconceptions in thermodynamics .............................................................................................................. 8

2. 2. Research design and methodology ................................................................................................................. 8

2. 3. Research results and their interpretation................................................................................................. 10

2. 4. Related research projects.................................................................................................................................. 14

3. Developing part .................................................................................................................................. 16

3. 1. Experiments in high school thermodynamics ......................................................................................... 16

3. 2. Materials for teachers ......................................................................................................................................... 17

3. 3. Worksheets for students ................................................................................................................................... 20

4. Conclusions .......................................................................................................................................... 22

References ................................................................................................................................................ 23

Author’s publications relevant to the thesis................................................................................... 25

7

1. Introduction – goals and structure

There are many reasons why to deal with high school thermodynamics – among

others, thermodynamics belongs to the largest areas in physics curriculum and lays the

groundwork for perspective applied physics branches such as material physics or

surface and plasma science. Despite that, Czech students find thermodynamics to be the

least interesting physics topic (Dvořák et al., 2008); in such a context, it seems to be

useful to look for ways how to increase its attractiveness for learners. Among others,

precisely and appealingly prepared experiments could play an important role when

meeting this challenge. On the other hand, these experiments definitely should not aim

only at being attractive – primarily they should be intended to help conceptual

understanding of thermodynamics.

In the most general sense, the goal of this work was to identify the parts of

thermodynamics that are most problematic for high school students, and on the basis

of research-based findings to prepare relevant experiments supporting students’

understanding. The sub-goals are possible to express in the following points:

To use a chosen conceptual test to uncover and describe misconceptions

typical for high school students dealing with thermodynamics.

To assess the resilience of identified misconceptions against traditional

instruction, to relate students’ results to their attitudes towards physics.

To choose, prepare, document and verify experiments suitable for

strengthening the conceptual understanding in problematic thermodynamic

topics. Similarly to prepare other relevant experiments inspired by the

interaction with experienced teachers.

To appropriately publish the created materials, e.g. in the electronic

Collection of Physics Experiments.

It is evident from this list of goals that the thesis could be divided into two main

parts: the research part and the developing part. Considering a certain autonomy of

these parts, both are equipped with their own theoretical background and their own

list of literature search outcomes.

The research part (chapters 1 to 4) deals with misconceptions-oriented research

on the sample of ca. 500 high school students and offers not only the discussion of the

most common and most resistant misconceptions, but also possible correlations

between students’ results in the conceptual test and their attitudes. The conventional

study design pre-test/post-test is complemented by a retention study and the

attitudinal research using a semantic differential technique to map respondents’

semantic space.

The more extensive developing part (chapters 5 to 7) focuses on materials related

to developed experiments. In total of 46 manuals were prepared for teachers, each

describing one processed experiment in detail. For students, 10 worksheets, each

guiding them through a two-hour block of experiments, were created.

8

2. Research part

2. 1. Misconceptions in thermodynamics

On every school level, thermodynamics is conceptually a very rich area and uses

terms that are familiar from everyday life but have different meanings in physics

(Driver, Guesne & Tiberghien, 1985; Leihonen, Asikainen & Hirvonen, 2013). Such

a language gap between the unscientific and scientific approaches, together with our

everyday experience with common thermal phenomena, can form or even strengthen

students’ intuitive incorrect beliefs – misconceptions1.

Many well-documented previous studies conducted in the past 35 years have

shown the existence and strong resilience of students’ misconceptions related to

thermal phenomena (Erickson, 1979; Harrison, Grayson & Treagust, 1999; Chu,

Treagust, Yeo & Zadnik, 2012; Lewis & Linn, 1994; Sözbilir, 2003; Yeo & Zadnik, 2001;

etc.); the most common misconceptions compiled from these studies are summarized

in the list below:

There is something like “hot heat” and “cold heat”.

Heat is a material substance.

Object can “own” a certain amount of heat.

Temperature is a measure, an amount of heat.

Temperature of an object depends on its size.

Temperature will change during melting or boiling.

Temperature of boiling water can exceed 100 °C during boiling.

Metals attract, hold or store heat and cold.

Wool warms things up.

Some substances (e.g. metals) are naturally colder than others (e.g. wood).

2. 2. Research design and methodology

Research questions, research approach and plan

The misconception-oriented study described in the thesis was designed to answer

these two research questions:

Q1: What are nowadays the most common misconceptions of Czech high school

students held in the field of thermal phenomena?

Q2: What’s the influence of commonly running instruction in physics lessons on these

identified misconceptions?

1 Educational researchers perceive the term misconceptions differently. In this thesis,

the standard term misconceptions is used in the Clement’s context (Clement, Brown & Zietsman,

1989) because of its widespread use and familiarity.

9

Author’s research hypotheses belonging to these questions were the following:

H1: For students, the most problematic part of thermodynamics is related to the

concept of heat conductivity, which is paid only very little attention in high school

curriculum.

H2: Traditional instruction will lead to only small, not statistically significant

improvement of students’ conceptual understanding.

From the methodological point of view, the quantitative approach was used to answer

the research questions. The basic research plan was an ex-post-facto study, with the

data gathered by the methods of achievement paper & pencil test and questionnaire.

The test was used as a pre-test and post-test tool, the pre-test being administered

before the students had started the topic of heat and thermodynamics in their regular

physics lessons and the post-test being administered immediately after that.

Research tool

As a research tool, the Thermal Concept Evaluation test (TCE; Yeo & Zadnik, 2001)

was used. This concept inventory was developed by Shelley Yeo and Marjan Zadnik in

2001 and it was specifically designed to assess a wide range of beliefs or

understandings about thermodynamic concepts held by students aged from 15 to 18.

The inventory consists of 26 multiple-choice questions typically inspired by everyday

situations and since its creation in 2001, it has been used in countries all over the

world, both in its full, reduced or extended version (Baser, 2006; Chu, Treagust, Yeo

& Zadnik, 2012; Luera, Otto & Zitzewitz, 2006; etc.).

The Czech translation of TCE was completed in March 2013 and subsequently

discussed with 10 experts in physics education. These discussions and the pilot study

conducted on a sample of 72 high school students resulted in a reduction of TCE to its

present form (called CTCE), which includes 19 multiple-choice questions. With respect

to the specifics of the Czech education system and the low discrimination index (Yeo

& Zadnik, 2001) of some items, questions number 12, 13, 14, 15, 20, 21 and 26

originally involved in TCE were excluded.

Investigated population

The test was dedicated to high school students dealing with thermodynamics,

typically aged between 16 and 18. From the list of all Czech high schools outside

Prague, those were contacted which meet the following criteria:

The school has its educational program published on its websites.

The topic of thermodynamics is not divided into two school years by summer

holiday.

Using a public transport, the town is not further than 1.5 hrs from the capital

(with one exception).

10

Among Prague schools, those were chosen which have already participated on some

project with author’s faculty. In total, 48 Czech high schools were contacted with an

offer to join the study and 18 of them agreed.

Procedure

The dominant part of the research took part during the school year 2013/2014,

a few schools were involved in the next school year as well. In order to provide

participants from different schools and classes comparable conditions for completing

the test, almost all tests were administered by the researcher himself. This approach

helped to exclude the influence of teachers’ personalities and their attitudes towards

the research, which could be both demotivating (the teacher depreciating the test) and

stressful (the teacher overestimating it) for students. The fact that personal presence in

classrooms could help the researcher to observe which questions are most time

consuming or which are typically skipped over during the first reading, can be

considered an additional benefit.

Pre-tests were administered approximately a week before students started the

topic dealing with thermal phenomena, post-tests were typically introduced no later

than two or three weeks after they finished it. In both cases, teachers were asked not to

inform students about the test or to prepare them for it.

To match the pre-test and the post-test of each investigated participant in order to

compare them, students were asked to sign their answer sheets; if they refused to do so

(only in a few rare cases), they were asked to mark their answer sheet with their

nicknames or some number.

To fill out both the pre-test and the post-test, students were given 30 minutes;

however, the majority of them finished sooner, after about 25 minutes. Apart from test

questions, they were also asked to assess four statements regarding their attitudes

towards physics (see chapter 2.4.).

2. 3. Research results and their interpretation

General data

In the pre-test, results from 631 respondents were collected and 520 of them

were successfully paired with data obtained later in the post-test. The general

comparison between pre-test and post-test scores is shown in Table 1. As seen from

this table, the average students’ score increased from initial value about 46 % in the

pre-test to ca. 58 % in the post-test resulting in a normalized gain 𝑔 = 0.23 (Hake,

1998). Although this improvement is statistically significant at the level p < 0.001, it

signalizes a low effectivity of instruction.

Boys were more successful in comparison with girls, 8-year programme students

in comparison with those attending 4-year cycle and students from Prague in

comparison with the rest of the country. All these differences were statistically

11

significant at the level p < 0.001, but there was no statistically significant difference in

the normalized gain – for all above mentioned groups it was quite the same, oscillating

around 0.23.

# students pre-test (%) post-test (%) normalized gain

whole population 520 45.6 58.2 0.23

gender results

girls 304 39.9 53.4 0.22

boys 216 53.7 65.0 0.24

results according to the length of study programme

4-years programme 215 39.2 51.7 0.21

8-years programme 286 50.5 62.9 0.25

results according to the school location

schools in Prague 173 50.5 62.1 0.23

schools out of Prague 347 42.8 55.9 0.23

Table 1: General data (pre-test post-test comparison)

Item analysis

The Table 2 summarizes average students’ results in particular questions – from

the left the pre-test score, the post-test score and the normalized gain. Since the CTCE

questions are too long to be stated in full in the text, their short reformulations partly

adopted from Luera, Otto & Zitzewitz (2005) are used.

no. question pre-test

(%) post-test

(%) normaliz.

gain g

1 Likely temperature of ice cubes in a freezer. 76.9 80.4 0.15

2 Likely temperature of water in a glass with ice. 51.2 63.8 0.26

3 Likely temperature of ice cubes in a puddle of water. 43.3 58.7 0.27

4 Likely temperature of rapidly boiling water. 61.7 72.7 0.29

5 Temperature of continuously boiling water. 26.0 41.9 0.21

6 Temperature of steam above the boiling water. 23.3 28.7 0.07

7 Temperature of a mixture of unequal volumes of water of different temperatures 79.0 82.9 0.19

8 Reason behind water boiling at a high altitude. 36.2 52.1 0.25

9 Likely temperature of a plastic bottle and a can of coke. 36.2 48.5 0.19

10 Reason why a counter under coke can feel colder than the rest of the counter. 43.1 68.7 0.45

11 Equal volumes of water and ice in a freezer, which of them loses more heat? 21.2 44.4 0.29

12

12 Explanation why a metal ruler feels colder than a wooden ruler. 38.7 61.3 0.37

13 Likely room temperature when given temperatures of wet and dry washcloth. 28.7 31.5 0.04

14 Reason why a cold carton from a refrigerator

feels colder than the one on a counter. 41.9 47.3 0.09

15 Reason why pressure cookers cook faster than normal saucepans. 33.5 51.3 0.27

16 Reason why bike pump becomes hot. 80.8 85.6 0.25

17 Why do we wear sweaters in cold weather? 58.8 70.8 0.29

18 Wooden ice pop sticks are warmer than the ice part. 33.7 48.5 0.22

19 Estimation of the lowest possible temperature. 54.2 67.3 0.29

Table 2: Detailed statistics of particular questions

As evident from the Table 2, only questions 10 and 12 exceeded 𝑔 = 0.30 which is

considered a border between low effective and medium effective instruction; on the

other hand, there was no item with 𝑔 being negative. The following paragraphs

summarize the main findings of the item analysis.

Phase transitions: The most problematic items at all were questions number 5, 6,

11 and 13, all dealing with phase transitions and related temperature changes. These

questions were scored below 30% in the pre-test and despite a slight improvement

after the instruction, they remained the four worst answered in the post-test. Table 3

shows the strongest misconceptions uncovered using a CTCE.

no. misconception students with the misconception

pre-test (%) post-test (%)

3 The temperature of ice cubes in a room must be above 0 °C. 50.4 36.0

5 The temperature of continuously boiling water exceeds 100 °C. 71.8 57.5

6 The steam above boiling water exceeds the temperature of 100 °C. 58.7 61.0

11 It is impossible to get water at 0 °C. 43.7 23.2

Table 3: Misconceptions identified in the field of phase transitions

The concept of cold: According to previous studies, the belief that heat and cold

are antonyms, two different phenomena occurring in different situations, survives in

many students. To confirm or confute this, all statements of CTCE where the term cold

occurs were extracted to Table 4 and students’ reached gains in the pre-test and the

13

post-test were compared. Surprisingly, the table shows that in the case of Czech

students, the term cold probably didn’t play an important role in their decision-making,

as all items containing this scientifically disproved concept were scored either very low

or they showed a considerable decrease in the post-test.

item statement chosen by % of students

pre-test (%) post-test (%)

10a The cold has been transferred from the coke can to the counter. 50.4 24.2

12e Cold flows more easily from metal than from wood. 8.3 6.3

14a Compared with the warm carton, the cold carton contains more cold. 17.5 7.3

14e Compared with the warm carton, the cold carton conducts the cold more rapidly to Pavel’s hand. 10.0 3.9

17a We wear sweaters to keep the cold out. 1.9 1.2

18b Ice contains more cold than wood does. 12.1 4.8

Table 4: Items of CTCE where the term cold occurs

Heat as energy stored in matter: Students’ concept of heat as a state quantity, as

some kind of energy contained inside the matter, is very strong and resistant to change.

This conclusion was supported by this research as well – the Table 5 compares

students’ pre-test and the post-test gains in questions related to the concept of heat.

This comparison showed that the perception of heat as a “property of matter” was

either only insignificantly reduced or even notably strengthened after the instruction.

item statement chosen by % of students

pre-test (%) post-test (%)

11c Both ice and water contain the same amount of heat. 26.3 26.9

11d Ice does not contain any heat. 6.0 2.5

12c The wooden ruler contains more heat than the metal ruler. 12.3 9.4

14b Compared with the warm carton, the cold carton contains less heat. 28.5 40.0

17b Sweaters create heat. 3.3 3.3

18c The wooden sticks contain more heat than ice. 15.4 22.7

Table 5: Items of CTCE where the idea that “heat is contained in the matter” occurs

14

Heat conductivity: Although thermal conductivity is paid only very little attention

in Czech high school curriculum, questions dealing with this topic showed very wide

range of gains. While question 12 ranks among the items with highest improvement

after the instruction, the normalized gain of the similarly formulated question 14 is

very low. This shows an evident inconsistency in students’ understanding of heat

conductivity when their success in answering questions depends on chosen distractors.

To sum up the results of the research briefly, it is time to look back at the research

questions Q1 and Q2:

As the most significant misconceptions the research shows those which are related

to phase transitions and to belief that heat is energy stored in matter. On the other

hand, misconceptions arising from the scientifically incorrect concept of cold seem to

be minor among Czech students. The understanding of heat conductivity is not

consistent, but some typical misconceptions mentioned in the literature (“sweaters

create heat etc.”) doesn’t occur in the Czech context.

Against the research hypothesis H2, traditional instruction shows a statistically

significant improvement in students’ average score represented by a normalized gain

of 0.23; however, such a shift indicates only the low effectivity of instruction.

2. 4. Related research projects

On the same population as the main research described in the previous chapters,

the next three minor studies were conducted.

Students’ attitudes towards physics

The purpose of four attitudinal questions attached to CTCE was to look into

possible relationships and correlations between students’ scores and their attitudes

towards physics. Students were asked to express their agreement or disagreement with

four following statements S1-S4:

S1: I expect I will need physics in the future (at university, at work).

S2: Physics is useful for society.

S3: Physics is useful for me.

S4: I enjoy physics, physics entertains me.

The results showed that majority of Czech students appreciate the importance and

usefulness of physics for the society as a whole (S2), but they do not regard it as

beneficial for themselves (S3). In statements S1 and S4 students’ chose similar

assessment (the null hypothesis that their answers are the same is not rejected), so it

seems that students who don’t see physics useful for their future are the same as those

who do not enjoy it.

In statements S1, S3 and S4, there is an evident correlation between students’

attitudes and their absolute gain in the CTCE (more positive assessment prefigures

better score); statement S2 does not show such a correlation. The normalized gain g

does not correlate with any of surveyed students’ attitudes.

15

The position of experiment in the semantic space

While the developing part of the thesis deals with physics experiments, it is

natural to ask how students perceive the role of experiments (not only) in physics

teaching and learning, what do they have associated with them etc. To uncover these

relations, the semantic differential technique (Osgood, Suci & Tannenbaum, 1957) was

chosen which uses connotative meanings of words to measure their “distance” in the

semantic space. Simply speaking, greater distance of two terms indicates, that these are

perceived by students more differently.

According to the goal of the research as well as previous studies in the Czech

environment (Pöschl, 2005), the following words were chosen to be investigated:

experiment, physics, chemistry, discovery, entertainment, experience, freedom, I myself,

job, reality, science, surprise, teacher and truth. Students were supposed to place each of

these terms on eight following bipolar scales: useful–useless, distant–close, interesting–

boring, difficult–easy, relaxed–tense, heavy–light, logical–illogical and problematic–

smooth.

The results showed that for Czech students the semantically closest to the word

experiment are the words discovery, job and experience (in this order), on the other

hand, as the furthermost students chose entertainment, chemistry (which is surprising

for the author) and freedom. To compare, in the case of the term physics, the closest

terms are chemistry, science and teacher, while the furthermost entertainment, freedom

and surprise; generally, the word entertainment was placed very far from any other

concepts.

In comparison with other words, experiment seems to be quite interesting and

moderately useful for students, while both physics and chemistry belong to words

perceived as least useful, least interesting and very distant. At the opposite end of the

scale of popularity there were entertainment (assessed entirely uncritically), freedom

and experience.

The use of CTCE as a retention test

Two years after the post-test, all the schools involved in the major study were

contacted once again to consider their participation in the retention research. In this

respect, the author met serious complications which radically reduced the number of

respondents – a lot of students no longer had physics lessons in their current school

year, many others were given a new teacher who disagreed with the testing etc.

Eventually, only 248 students (from the initial population of 520 respondents)

participated in the retention study that again used the unchanged CTCE test.

The main finding can be considered the fact that the difference between students’

scores in the post-test and in the retention test is not statistically significant; in other

words, students’ rate of success almost has not changed since the post-test. The

following item analysis also showed that the previously identified misconceptions

neither radically strengthened nor significantly weakened.

16

3. Developing part

3. 1. Experiments in high school thermodynamics

In the thesis experiment is perceived as an intentional, artificial inducing of some

process under predetermined repeatable conditions (Košťál & Mechlová, 1999).

Qualitative experiments are considered as those which prove or disprove the existence

of some phenomenon, quantitative experiments lead to the formulation of physics laws

and typically provide an outcome in the form of number, table or graph.

In the last century, large collections of experiments were published (e.g. Ehrlich,

1990; Freier & Anderson, 1972; Meiners, 1970; Sprott, 2006; Sutton, 1938 etc.), some

of them briefly, some in greater detail describing hundreds of demonstrations. Many

thermodynamic experiments contained in these books have survived in their original

or changed form until today; others are due to specific equipment or dangerous nature

almost impracticable in current school. In the Czech environment, an inspiration for

thermodynamic experiments offer authors like Svoboda (1989, 1997), Brockmeyerová

& Drozd (2003), Polák (2007) or Rakušan, Votrubcová & Havlíček (2014).

Recently, both English and Czech printed sources are supplemented by

continuously growing number of websites or YouTube channels focusing on physics

experiments and offering new inspiration for physics teachers as well as enthusiastic

students.

In addition to printed books and web sources, science centres also represent

a popular way how to bring interesting physics experiments closer to both students

and general public. The author of the thesis visited six best known Czech centres

(iQpark Liberec, Techmania Plzeň, VIDA! Brno, Technická herna Brno, Svět techniky

Ostrava and Pevnost poznání Olomouc) to sort their exhibits by the physics topics they

deal with; the results of this research show Table 6. (The classification of experiments

is necessary to be considered as approximate – science centres continuously develop

their collections so the numbers below can change).

topic

number of experiments in particular science centres

iQpark Techmania VIDA! Technická

herna Svět

techniky Pevnost poznání Σ

mechanics 35 11 14 10 9 6 85

optics 20 21 6 9 11 16 83

electricity and magnetism 26 15 9 4 10 3 67

mechanical oscillations & waves 7 14 6 7 4 3 41

thermodynamics 2 6 3 1 5 2 19

Table 6: Exhibits in Czech science centres sorted by physics topic, Σ stands for the sum

17

As apparent from Table 6, experiments dealing with thermal phenomena rarely

appear in Czech science centres and their number evidently does not correspond to the

extent of thermodynamics in high school curricula and to time allocation dedicated to

this topic.

3. 2. Materials for teachers

As mentioned in the Introduction, the main goal of the developing part of the thesis

is to prepare a wide set of experiments developed to serve as an inspiration primarily

for high school teachers.

Although the previously conducted literature search showed that thermodynamics

is not as rich in supportive materials for teachers as some other parts of physics, it still

offers them impressive number of experiments which are possible to be involved in

teaching. This thesis focuses only on those experiments which belong to at least one of

the following groups:

experiments arising from the previously described misconceptions research

experiments inspired abroad, absenting in the Czech context so far

experiments requested by teachers themselves

experiments using thermal imaging

well-known experiments revisited

Chosen experiments primarily aim at high school level and they are described so as to

be performed as teacher’s demonstration; however, it does not exclude their use in

physics labs. The general goal of the author is to inspire high school teachers for

experimenting but to leave them considerable freedom when choosing the way how to

perform an experiment and if to involve students in it or not.

In the thesis, in total of 46 experiments were chosen, conducted, verified with

students, documented in detail and carefully described. To publish this description, the

electronic environment of the Collection of Physics Experiments (Sbírka fyzikálních

pokusů, n.d.) was used; for every experiment, there is specified its goal, related physics

theory, necessary equipment, recommended procedure when performing/measuring

and a sample result – typically tables of measured values, graphs, pictures or short

videos. Very important part of each experiment is created by technical and pedagogical

notes which were formulated on the basis of real experience with each experiment in

lessons and which enable teachers to avoid problems when preparing and performing it.

The Table 7 shows a complete list of all prepared experiments, shortly

characterized by using the following pictograms:

: Quantitative experiment.

: Qualitative experiment.

: There is a video showing the procedure or experiment result.

: Experiment uses a thermal imaging camera.

: Experiment uses (or optionally can use) thermosensitive foils.

18

topic no. Experiment p

arti

cle

nat

ure

of

mat

ter

1 Brownian motion

chan

ges

in in

tern

al e

ner

gy 2

The conversion of kinetic energy into internal energy: Blow with a mallet

3 The conversion of kinetic energy into internal energy: Fall of a weight

4 Change in internal energy by performing work:

Drilling into the wood

5 Change in internal energy by performing work: Nail hammering

6 Change in internal energy by performing work: Pulling an object across the floor

hea

t an

d s

pec

ific

hea

t 7 Experimental determination of specific heat of water

8 Comparison of specific heat of ethanol and water

9 Comparison of specific heat of water and vegetable oil

10 Temperature changes in nasal cavity during breathing

ther

mal

co

nd

uct

ivit

y

11 Thermal conductivity of plastics and metals I

12 Thermal conductivity of plastics and metals II

13 Non-flammable paper

14 Heat removal caused by copper wire

15 Comparison of heat conductivity of copper, aluminium and brass

16 Cutting of ice cubes

17 Davy lamp

18 Traces of heat around us

19 Water cooling in a thermo-cup

con

vec

tio

n

and

rad

iati

on

20 Convection in electric kettle

21 Standard bulb and compact fluorescent lamp: Comparison of thermal emission

22 Absorbing of thermal radiation by differently coloured surfaces

19

topic no. Experiment

con

vec

tio

n

and

rad

iati

on

23 Thermal effects of laser beam

24 Transmissivity of plastics for thermal radiation

25 Absorbing of thermal radiation by plastic filters

26 Absorbing of thermal radiation by air

free

zin

g an

d

mel

tin

g 27 Melting point of sodium thiosulfate (pentahydrate)

28 Cooling mixture of water, ice and salt

29 Undercooled liquid

evap

ora

tio

n a

nd

co

nd

ensa

tio

n

30 Boiling point of water

31 Determination of latent heat of evaporation of water

32 Dependence of water boiling point on pressure

33 Cooling effects of aerosol sprays

34 Writing with alcohol-based highlighters

35 Evaporation of water and ethanol

36 How does air flow accelerate evaporation of liquids

37 The dependence of evaporation rate on the surface area of liquid

38 The dependence of evaporation rate on the air flow above the surface

39 Critical state of carbon dioxide

40 Condensation of water vapour

oth

er 41 Stirling engine

42 Change of volume with temperature

43 Hope’s experiment

ther

mal

eff

ects

in

elec

tro

mag

net

ism

44 Joule heating

45 Seebeck effect

46 Induction heating of water

Table 7: The list of all prepared experiments

20

3. 3. Worksheets for students

So far, the thesis focuses primarily on high school teachers and sources of possible

inspiration for their demonstrations. However, it appears that for the development of

conceptual understanding, students’ own experimenting has even higher effect in

comparison with demonstrations (Crouch et al., 2004). While not every high school is

able to ensure the appropriate environment for students’ experimentation (it does not

matter if for personal, spatial or timing reasons), this role could be taken over by

universities. For this reason, the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics (Charles

University in Prague) established a so called Interactive Physics Laboratory

(Interaktivní fyzikální laboratoř, n.d.) eight years ago.

This laboratory represents a space which high school students can visit and spend

here approx. 2 hours by experimenting under the supervision of university students of

didactics, future physics teachers; the topic of experimentation is chosen by visitors via

the web sites in advance. To the laboratory, students come with their teacher and work

there typically on shorter experimental block in groups of 3 or 4; through every block,

students are guided by a worksheet.

Nowadays, Interactive Physics Laboratory offers six different experimental sets,

each of them designed to last 120 minutes. The topics are: electrostatics,

thermodynamics I, thermodynamics II, rotary motion, mechanics of rigid body +

mechanical oscillations and magnetic field of solenoids.

Both thermodynamic sets were developed by the author of the thesis and both

consist of five experimental blocks, each in duration ca. 30 minutes. In the thesis, the

development and form of both sets is described in detail, the following paragraphs offer

only reduced description.

Experimental set Thermodynamics I

The experimental set has a quantitative nature and its general goal is to acquaint

students with different methods of data collections in physics and related data

processing. The emphasis is placed on estimations of measurement uncertainty, which

is often relatively significant in the field of thermal phenomena and which requires

appropriate attention and interpretation. Experiments included are wholly quantitative

and provide results in the form of graphs, shapes of curves or concrete value of some

physical quantity. The set consists of the following blocks:

Determination of specific heat of water

Comparison of specific heat of water and vegetable oil

Calorimetry

Verifying of Boyle-Mariott law

Verifying of Charles law

21

Experimental set Thermodynamics II

In contrast to the previous set, the set Thermodynamics II consists mainly of

qualitative experiments and focuses on conceptual understanding. The general goal of

the set is the effort to reduce the most common misconceptions in the field of thermal

phenomena, which have been identified using a CTCE test. The outcomes of the

experiments are neither numbers nor curves and graphs, but typically confirmation or

rejection of hypotheses formulated in advance. The set consists of the following blocks:

Thermal conductivity

Thermography

Melting of crystalline solids

Evaporation, condensation and boiling

How to influence the rate of evaporation

All the ten worksheets (five for the first set, five for the other) underwent significant

modifications in the past two years and their present form emerged from the testing on

the sample of several hundred high school students visiting Interactive Physics

Laboratory.

22

4. Conclusions

Thermodynamics belongs to the largest topics in the high school curriculum. While

it often deals with common everyday phenomena, it is natural that physics teachers on

every school level face students’ system of strong intuitive beliefs – preconceptions.

Those of them, which are scientifically incorrect (so called misconceptions), were

studied in the first part of the thesis. The quantitative research conducted among Czech

high school students (aged between 16 and 18) showed that for students, the most

problematic parts of thermodynamics are phase transitions, thermal conductivity and

the general perception of heat as energy hidden inside the matter. These

misconceptions firstly appeared in the pre-test and remained the most important also

in the post-test, some of them slightly reduced, but other even slightly strengthened.

Generally, the increase of average students’ score between the pre-test (46 %) and the

post-test (58 %) was statistically significant, but it resulted in normalized gain of

𝑔 = 0.23 which implies only low effectiveness of instruction that students had

undergone. The retention study conducted two years after the post-test on the sample

involving ca. 50 % of the initial participants showed that since the post-test, changes in

students’ results have not been statistically significant – any strong misconceptions

have neither arose nor disappeared.

Smaller studies associated with the main research focused on students’ attitudes

towards physics and experiments. According to their results, both students’ interest in

physics and expectation, that they will use in the future, correlated with the results in

the pre-test/post-test. On the other hand, physics is perceived as useful for society

across the studied population.

In the second part of the thesis, the author focuses on materials supporting the

experimentation of both teachers and students in thermodynamics. In the electronic

Collection of Physics Experiments there were published 46 experiments addressed

primarily to high school teachers as an inspiration for their demonstrations or labs. All

these experiments are described in detail and well-documented using samples of

results, graphs, figures or videos; additionally, all of them were tested with students in

lessons or during their experimentation in the Interactive Physics Laboratory

established by Faculty of Mathematics and Physics. For the purposes of this laboratory,

also ten worksheets were prepared which serve both as tutorials for students and as

a space for their estimations, hypotheses, calculations, conclusions etc. Five of these

worksheets have a quantitative nature and guide students through measurements, the

other five focus on conceptual understanding developed by mainly qualitative

experiments.

The goals stated at the very beginning of the thesis were reached, but there are

ways how to build on the results. As a future challenge can be considered the research

of motivations why teachers with their students visit the above mentioned Interactive

Physics Laboratory, how they work with students’ experience from there etc.

23

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25

Author’s publications relevant to the thesis

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19: Sborník z konference (ed.: V. Vochozka, V. Bednář, O. Kéhar, M. Randa). Plzeň:

Západočeská univerzita v Plzni, 69-73. ISBN: 978-80-261-0439-1.

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JČMF (ed.: R. Seifert). Praha: JČMF. ISBN: 978-80-7015-122-8.

Kácovský, P. (2016). Vypařování v experimentech: V hlavní roli váhy. Matematika –

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In: Proceedings of the MPTL 2015 Conference.