Evaluating the Role of Play, Feedback and Narrative in Undergraduate Thermodynamics Education

University Of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison WI

Investigators

Abstract

This project from the University of Wisconsin-Madison is producing a game-based learning tool to improve the success of students in introductory thermodynamics. The game improves the ability of students to grasp core concepts in thermodynamics. The project is also exploring the influence of formative feedback and demographically targeted narratives on the game-based learning. Concept inventory measurements gathered pre and post, along with a novel game assessment tool, characterize the game-induced learning. The innovative game assessment tool, built around the record of game-play moves, enables a direct measurement of learning moments and a mechanism to track the progress of players from novice to expert type behavior. The project empowers the creative energies of young engineers as they explore energy related issues and develop a strong foundation in thermodynamics. The game helps students recognize common relationships between key parameters such as pressure, temperature, and specific volume, and assists them to accurately identify how those variables interact within a variety of processes. Students explore these concepts within the context of energy balance and entropy balance relationships for closed systems and control volumes by selecting appropriate constraints that correspond to a specifically addressed narrative.