Space mishap as a stimulus context for thermal conduction exploration in secondary school

Abstract

A large body of literature underlines the relevance of personal involvement and in-context assignments in increasing student engagement in physics education at secondary level. The research-based teaching/learning experience offers different kinds of suggestions for physics education on the level of curricular proposals, on the level of feasibility of inquiry-based learning approaches, on the level of strategies and methods for learning environment settings, and on the level of conceptual understanding of students. During the activities, students find a good opportunity to discuss how heat is transferred, both on Earth and in space. Students discover through their own exploration what types of radiation space objects are exposed to in near-Earth orbits. By means of a “flipped classroom” methodology the students analyse radiant heat absorption and reflection. The activity was extended to learn about heat radiation incident on Earth and emitted by Earth. It was interesting to see the reaction of students when they realized that “radiant heat” has a wavelength, and that it is part of the electromagnetic wave spectrum. Tutorials and post-tests were used in order to gauge the students’ understanding of the processes involved, and in particular what their conception of heat is. Students proposed different materials for heat shields used in the experiment, and in this way we touched on the subjects of thermal insulation and heat capacity. This leads us to examine the inner structure of materials, and essentially the link between macro- and micro-world. Discussion of heat absorption is a way to introduce the concept of energy, and consequently the role of macro-micro models in material science processes description. Characteristics and main results of the intervention module will be presented together with data of the monitored learning process.