Fundamental Research in Engineering Education — Identifying and Repairing Student Misconceptions in Thermal and Transport Science: Concept Inventories and Schema Training Studies

Authors

  • Ronald L. Miller Colorado School of Mines
  • Ruth A. Streveler Purdue University
  • Dazhi Yang Boise State University
  • Aidsa I. Santiago Román University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez

Abstract

This paper summarizes progress on two related lines of chemical engineering education research: 1) identifying persistent student misconceptions in thermal and transport science (fluid mechanics, heat transfer, and thermodynamics); and, 2) developing a method to help students repair these misconceptions. Progress on developing the Thermal and Transport Concept Inventory is discussed and preliminary results from an experiment to study the effect of schema training on students’ understanding of emergent processes is presented.

Author Biographies

Ronald L. Miller, Colorado School of Mines

Ronald L. Miller is a professor of chemical engineering and director of the Center for Engineering Education at the Colorado School of Mines, where he has taught chemical engineering and interdisciplinary courses and conducted engineering education research for the past 25 years. He has received three university-wide teaching awards and has held a Jenni teaching fellowship at CSM. He has received grant awards for education research from the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Education FIPSE program, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Colorado Commission on Higher Education, and has published widely in the engineering education literature. His research interests include measuring and repairing engineering student misconceptions in thermal and transport science.

Ruth A. Streveler, Purdue University

Ruth A. Streveler is an assistant professor in the School of Engineering Education at Purdue University. Before coming to Purdue she spent 12 years at Colorado School of Mines, where she was the founding director of the Center for Engineering Education. She earned a B.A. in biology from Indiana University-Bloomington, an M.S. in zoology from the Ohio State University, and a Ph.D in educational psychology from the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Her primary research interest is investigating students’ understanding of difficult concepts in engineering science.

Dazhi Yang, Boise State University

Dazhi Yang is an assistant professor in the Department of Educational Technology at Boise State University. Prior to coming to Boise State, she was a postdoctoral researcher and instructional designer in the School of Engineering Education at Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana. Her research interests include technology-assisted learning, especially emerging learning technologies in online and distance education, and effective instructional strategies for teaching difficult and complex science and engineering concepts.

Aidsa I. Santiago Román, University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez

Aidsa I. Santiago Román is an assistant professor in the General Engineering Department and director of the Strategic Engineering Education Development Office at the University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez Campus (UPRM) where she has taught programming and solid mechanics courses since January 2000. She obtained her Ph.D. degree from Purdue University in August 2009. Since then she has received three awards: 2010 UPRM’s Female Engineering Educator, 2010 ASEE ERM Apprentice Faculty Award, and 2010 FIE New Faculty Fellow. Her research interests include measuring and repairing bilingual engineering student misconceptions in solid
mechanics, programming, and thermal and transport science. Recently, she has received a BRIGE grant award for education research from the National Science Foundation to study the efficacy of the Statics Concept Inventory with bilingual students.

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Published

2011-07-01

Issue

Vol. 45 No. 3 (2011): Summer 2011

Section

Manuscripts