Looking for solutions : University chemistry and physics students interacting with infrared cameras

Infrared (IR) cameras can be used to support the learning and understanding of thermodynamics. Previous research shows that the technology enables university physics students to observe otherwise invisible thermal phenomena. In the present study, the focus is extended to the use of IR cameras in an educational chemistry laboratory setting with a comparison to the physics labs. Depending on the communicative actions made to interact with the cameras, different affordances of the IR cameras are accessed. For example, some students compare what they see with the IR camera with their sense of touch. The kinds of actions students make depend on aspects like their disciplinary experience and the discipline of study. Predict-Observe-Explain is used to probe students’ potential actions for interaction with the IR camera. Data is collected by video recording and iterative transcription to find contrasting or shared patterns of interaction across the groups. A multimodal approach to conversation analysis is used to find these patterns. The result shows that the physics and chemistry students use the technology to confirm or disconfirm predictions made, but differ in the coordination of actions to achieve that goal. The physics students move around and use the sense of touch together with IR-camera observations, while the chemistry students focus on IR-camera observations from one perspective alone