Teaching entropy to first-year undergraduates: what impact has a microscopic, statistical approach on alternative conceptions?

Understanding entropy and the second law of thermodynamics presents significant challenges in science education at undergraduate level. While many untested approaches have been proposed to enhance the teaching of these concepts, this study focuses on the testing of a microscopic-oriented introduction to thermodynamics for first-year undergraduates in a scientific curriculum that uses elements from statistical thermodynamics with minimal reliance on mathematics. We investigated the impact of this method on student learning through a conceptual questionnaire featuring multiple-choice questions with and without justification. Our intervention included a two-hour lecture, a two-hour exercise tutorial, and a supplementary text for a thermodynamics laboratory. The results indicate that this approach had a mixed effect on conceptual change. The intervention demonstrated a small effect size in a task addressing entropy comparison in gases, suggesting its potential as a supplementary educational tool in tertiary settings to understand molecular factors affecting entropy. However, the teaching method did not seem to improve alternative conceptions connected to disorder, or to quantum mechanical effects, such as the dependence of rotational entropy on the moments of inertia of particles. These findings underlie the critical need for testing new teaching methods in introductory thermodynamics and provide evidence that a microscopic perspective might complement the traditional teaching of macroscopic thermodynamics.