Heat Angels and Paper Cups: Pupils’ Use of Metaphoric Relations When Engaging Thermal Cameras to Investigate Heat

Abstract

Thermal science is a perennial obstacle for learners. Infrared camera technology provides an opportunity for pupils to confront challenging thermal ideas. From an embodied cognition perspective, sensory experiences form metaphoric relations that underpin conceptualisation and reasoning about abstract scientific phenomena. This study investigated eight groups of fourth grade pupils’ use of metaphoric relations when engaging thermal cameras to explore “heat” at a science centre. Pupils were videorecorded while collaboratively exploring thermal properties of the surroundings and during a thermos modelling exercise. Qualitative metaphor analyses of pupils’ dialogue and behaviour revealed various metaphoric and metonymic relations around spatial properties, colour, movement and change in their conceptualisation of thermal phenomena. “Heat” was almost exclusively conceptualised as a noun, manifested in utterances such as “harder for the heat to escape” and “it wants to get yellow”. In addition, pupils used colour as both a metonym and metaphor for heat and temperature. Expressions of heat as an entity were closely related to experiences of movement, indicating that spatial cognition is central to children’s conceptualisation of heat. Engagement with the cameras provided access to thermodynamic phenomena through unique sensory and nonsensory experiences. Future research will explore how these metaphoric relations can be exploited as a meaning-making resource in the classroom.