Students’ framing of laboratory exercises using infrared cameras

Thermal science is challenging for students due to its largely imperceptible nature. Handheld infraredcameras offer a pedagogical opportunity for students to see otherwise invisible thermal phenomena. In thepresent study, a class of upper secondary technology students (N = 30) partook in four IR-cameralaboratory activities, designed around the predict-observe-explain approach of White and Gunstone. Theactivities involved central thermal concepts that focused on heat conduction and dissipative processes suchas friction and collisions. Students’ interactions within each activity were videotaped and the analysisfocuses on how a purposefully selected group of three students engaged with the exercises. As the basis foran interpretative study, a “thick” narrative description of the students’ epistemological and conceptualframing of the exercises and how they took advantage of the disciplinary affordance of IR cameras in thethermal domain is provided. Findings include that the students largely shared their conceptual framing ofthe four activities, but differed among themselves in their epistemological framing, for instance, in how farthey found it relevant to digress from the laboratory instructions when inquiring into thermal phenomena.In conclusion, the study unveils the disciplinary affordances of infrared cameras, in the sense of their use inproviding access to knowledge about macroscopic thermal science