Windows on the Inquiry Classroom: A Pedagogic Field Laboratory for Exploring Teaching and Learning of Heat, Temperature, and Energy

Abstract

A complete video and documentary record of an inquiry-based nonscience majors’ course has been captured (the “Fire and Ice” Collection). Every moment of 27 class sessions may be observed from several points of view (instructor, students, and graduate interns) in synchronized 10-minute video segments, daily reflections, or periodic focus groups. The collection is like an ecological field site—a pedagogic field laboratory—for science teachers, teacher educators, and STEM education researchers to explore. The course addresses the perception, movement, creation, and application of the concepts of heat and temperature, and the historical development of these ideas. The pedagogic design features small student working groups, handson activities for exploration of phenomena, generation of questions, building of mental models based on the particulate nature of matter and molecular structure/property relationships, and linking these models into areas of application involving everyday materials and issues. The documentation available includes all instructor scripts, assignments, student work products, and class materials. The Fire and Ice Pedagogic Field Laboratory offers a source of materials and ideas for teaching about energy, an authentic example of inquiry teaching and learning, a resource for professional development, and a database for research.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Christopher F. Bauer

Christopher F. Bauer ([email protected]) is a professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of New Hampshire in Durham, New Hampshire.

Julia Y. K. Chan

Julia Y. K. Chan ([email protected]) is an assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at California State University, Fullerton in Fullerton, California.