Workshop: Lightbulb Moments - Finding and Repairing Students' Misconceptions in Thermal Sciences

A key distinction between expert and novice problem-solvers is that experts organize their ideas around concepts, while novices tend to approach challenges more algorithmically. A significant factor impeding our students’ progress from novice to expert is that many of them have misconceptions about important physical processes (such as heat transfer) that stand in the way of students’ incorporating their procedural understanding into a larger conceptual framework. Decades of research show that traditional lectures are generally ineffective for promoting conceptual change. In this workshop, we will explore approaches to determine what misconceptions your students hold and demonstrate best practices to effectively repair these misconceptions. Specific examples from heat transfer and thermodynamics will be demonstrated.