Assessing Misconceptions of Undergraduate Engineering Students in the Thermal Sciences

This study presents preliminary results of a multi-year research project to identify persistent misconceptions held by undergraduate engineering students in the core engineering sciences of thermodynamics and heat transfer. This report lays out the phased development of valid and reliable concept inventories to assess the prevalence and persistence of these misconceptions. The inventories exhibit reliability and validity levels that allow them to be used for research purposes. Student performance on the instrument from several undergraduate engineering programs demonstrates the existence of two specific misconceptions: (1) students frequently confound factors which determine the rate of heat transfer and the amount of heat transfer and (2) students often misconstrue the impact of entropy on the efficiency of real systems, specifically believing that the only barrier to 100% thermal efficiency is friction and heat losses. Pre/post measures of students' conceptual understanding demonstrate that significant misconceptions persist after instruction in the relevant undergraduate thermodynamics and transport courses.