A preliminary study on the effectiveness of inquiry-based activities for addressing misconceptions of undergraduate engineering students

This paper presents results from a preliminary study of the effectiveness of using inquiry-based activities to address misconceptions held by undergraduate engineering students in heat transfer and thermodynamics. These targeted misconception areas were identified previously as both important and difficult for students to master by a panel of engineering educators. Five separate inquiry-based activities (two physical experiments and three computer simulations) were developed and tested for their effectiveness at producing conceptual change during a 4-year study. Students’ conceptual change was assessed with concept inventories used in a pre-test–post-test design. The research examined students’ ability to answer conceptual questions both directly coupled with the developed activity and questions that required students to apply the targeted concept in new contexts. These assessments were done both immediately after the activity and 10 weeks later. Students’ performance generally improved in all areas, suggesting that the activities were effective for promoting conceptual change.