PERC 2021 Abstract Detail Page
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| Abstract Title: | Comparing undergraduate and graduate student reasoning on a conceptual entropy questionnaire |
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| Abstract: | In a prior study, we investigated graduate student reasoning on a set of entropy-related conceptual tasks in a think-aloud format. The tasks involved entropy from microscopic and macroscopic perspectives, ideal gases, and a novel context involving a system with a dynamic string. In the current study, we conducted interviews with undergraduates using the same questionnaire. Most students were interviewed during the second half of their upper-division Thermal Physics course at the University of Colorado Boulder while two were upper-division undergraduates from other institutions with strong physics programs. We analyze the responses of the undergraduates to a section of the interview involving a novel system of a dynamic string waving in a bath of water and discuss the similarities and differences between the undergraduate and graduate students' responses. The responses from the two populations share many similarities with a few noteworthy exceptions. The undergraduates generally did not produce multiple macrostate classifications in the novel system, and some expressed a concern with what they perceived to be an infinite number of microstates---and thus infinite entropy---which was not a concern among the graduate students. |
| Abstract Type: | Contributed Poster Presentation |
| Session Time: | Poster Session 1 Room A |
| Poster Number: | 1A-19 |
| Contributed Paper Record: | Contributed Paper Information |
| Contributed Paper Download: | Download Contributed Paper |
Author/Organizer Information | |
| Primary Contact: |
Nathan Crossette University of Colorado Boulder Boulder, CO 80309 |
| Co-Author(s) and Co-Presenter(s) |
Micheal Vignal, University of Colorado Boulder; Bethany R Wilcox, University of Colorado Boulder |
