2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

ThermoVR: Using Virtual Reality and Playful Simulation to Teach and Assess Introductory Thermodynamics Concepts

Presented at Simulations and Virtual Learning

In this Work in Progress paper we describe ThermoVR, a virtual laboratory activity for teaching and assessing introductory hemodynamics concepts. The project adopts the practices of embedded assessment and evidence centered design to create a new fine-grained and computationally graded instrument that uses student interaction data within a simulated piston-cylinder system. The result is a highly scalable digital teaching and assessing tool with a forthcoming evaluation to be conducted in Fall of 2024.

Authors

David J Gagnon Field Day Lab @ UW-Madison [biography]

David J. Gagnon is the research director of Field Day Laboratory at the University of Wisconsin - Madison. Field Day produces and researches educational video games that have won numerous awards (Serious Play, Meaningful Play, Public Media Awards,ASEE, and others) and are used by over a million students yearly in grades 4-20, across a diversity of subjects, from engineering to underwater archeology. Field Day is the organization behind Open Game Data, a national research infrastructure to explore the use of game data for educational research and learning engineering approaches for educational media.
Prof. John M. Pfotenhauer http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0902-1997 University of Wisconsin, Madison [biography]

Professor John M. Pfotenhauer earned his BA, MA, and PhD degrees in physics from St. Olaf College and the University of Oregon in 1979, 1981, and 1984. For eight years he conducted research as part of the Applied Superconductivity Center at the Universit
Arganthael Berson University of Wisconsin, Madison
Luke Swanson http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8455-7441 University of Wisconsin, Madison

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