2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

This Work In Progress (WIP) outlines an approach for creating and introducing a concept map in an undergraduate, introductory heat transfer course for mechanical engineering majors. Concept maps, mind maps, or similar diagrams, provide a visual representation of relationships between course topics. These tools help students identify connections and build new neural paths, linking new knowledge to existing knowledge, which aids in both understanding and recall. While the benefits of concept maps have been widely reported, there is limited evidence demonstrating the effectiveness of concept maps in an undergraduate heat transfer course. This Work In Progress highlights the instructor-developed concept map designed to assist students in identifying and connecting concepts required for heat transfer analysis. Future work will include student-developed concept maps and data collection to evaluate the impact of concept maps on student academic performance in the course.