Pupils' early explorations of thermoimaging to interpret heat and temperature

Abstract

In thermodynamics teaching, pupils have been found to confuse temperature and heat, and to conceive touch as an infallible thermometer. This study explored the potential of combining the sense of touch with infrared (IR) thermal imaging on pupils' understanding of heat and temperature. Eight 7th-grade pupils (12-13 years old) worked in pairs across three laboratory exercises (real-time IR imaging, static IR images, or thermometers) to predict, observe and explain (POE) the temperatures of different objects. An anomaly between perceived 'coldness' and measured temperature was induced among the pupils, but they did not manage to resolve this cognitive conflict. The pupils observed the objects getting warmer and increasing in temperature, but did not explain the experiments as involving a heat flow from their bodies to the objects. Successful explanation might require a combination of thermal imaging and the explicit introduction of a simple heat-flow model.