They Still Remember What I Never Taught Them: Student Understanding of Entropy

Loverude, Michael E.

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They Still Remember What I Never Taught Them: Student Understanding of Entropy

written by Michael E. Loverude

As part of an ongoing project to examine student learning in upper-division courses in thermal and statistical physics, we have examined student reasoning about the approach of macroscopic objects to thermal equilibrium. We have examined reasoning in terms of heat transfer, entropy maximization, and statistical treatments of multiplicity and probability. In the current paper, we present student responses from a set of interviews completed 1-2 years after students had completed the thermal physics course. Students gave a variety of responses, but most students gave answers that did not correspond to the models that they had been taught in the course.

Physics Education Research Conference 2012
Part of the PER Conference series
Philadelphia, PA: August 1-2, 2012
Volume 1513, Pages 266-269

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Published: January 24, 2013

Subjects	Levels	Resource Types
Education - Basic Research - Alternative Conceptions - Problem Solving = Representational Use Thermo & Stat Mech - Ensembles = Macrostate - Second and Third Law = Entropy	- Upper Undergraduate	- Reference Material = Research study

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Formats:: application/pdf
non-digital
Mirror:: https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4789703
Access Rights:: Free access and
Available for purchase; A preprint of the work is available. A hard copy of the PERC 2012 proceedings is available for purchase from the AIP.
Restriction:: © 2012 American Institute of Physics
DOI:: 10.1063/1.4789703
NSF Number:: 0817335
PACSs:: 01.40.Fk; 01.40.G-; 05.20.-y; 05.70.-a
Keywords:: PERC 2012, upper-division
Record Cloner:: Metadata instance created June 27, 2013 by Zachary Davis
Record Updated:: December 17, 2013 by Lyle Barbato
Last Update when Cataloged:: January 24, 2013

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Record Link

<a href="https://www.per-central.org/items/detail.cfm?ID=12830">Loverude, Michael. "They Still Remember What I Never Taught Them: Student Understanding of Entropy." Paper presented at the Physics Education Research Conference 2012, Philadelphia, PA, August 1-2, 2012.</a>

AIP Format

M. Loverude, , presented at the Physics Education Research Conference 2012, Philadelphia, PA, 2012, WWW Document, (https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=12830&DocID=3363).

AJP/PRST-PER

M. Loverude, They Still Remember What I Never Taught Them: Student Understanding of Entropy, presented at the Physics Education Research Conference 2012, Philadelphia, PA, 2012, <https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=12830&DocID=3363>.

APA Format

Loverude, M. (2012, August 1-2). They Still Remember What I Never Taught Them: Student Understanding of Entropy. Paper presented at Physics Education Research Conference 2012, Philadelphia, PA. Retrieved March 26, 2025, from https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=12830&DocID=3363

Chicago Format

Loverude, Michael. "They Still Remember What I Never Taught Them: Student Understanding of Entropy." Paper presented at the Physics Education Research Conference 2012, Philadelphia, PA, August 1-2, 2012. https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=12830&DocID=3363 (accessed 26 March 2025).

MLA Format

Loverude, Michael. "They Still Remember What I Never Taught Them: Student Understanding of Entropy." Physics Education Research Conference 2012. Philadelphia, PA: 2012. 266-269 Vol. 1513 of PER Conference. 26 Mar. 2025 <https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=12830&DocID=3363>.

BibTeX Export Format

@inproceedings{ Author = "Michael Loverude", Title = {They Still Remember What I Never Taught Them: Student Understanding of Entropy}, BookTitle = {Physics Education Research Conference 2012}, Pages = {266-269}, Address = {Philadelphia, PA}, Series = {PER Conference}, Volume = {1513}, Month = {August 1-2}, Year = {2012} }

Refer Export Format

%A Michael Loverude %T They Still Remember What I Never Taught Them: Student Understanding of Entropy %S PER Conference %V 1513 %D August 1-2 2012 %P 266-269 %C Philadelphia, PA %U https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=12830&DocID=3363 %O Physics Education Research Conference 2012 %O August 1-2 %O application/pdf

EndNote Export Format

%0 Conference Proceedings %A Loverude, Michael %D August 1-2 2012 %T They Still Remember What I Never Taught Them: Student Understanding of Entropy %B Physics Education Research Conference 2012 %C Philadelphia, PA %V 1513 %P 266-269 %S PER Conference %8 August 1-2 %U https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=12830&DocID=3363

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