Enhancing Student Understanding of Thermodynamic Principles Through 3D Visualization

Many engineering students struggle to develop three-dimensional visualization skills.Such visualization plays a key role in a variety of undergraduate courses, including thermodynamics.The pressure-volume-temperature (P-v-T) surface is a foundational concept in the discipline.It provides a visual representation of the relationship between the three physical properties and serves as the cornerstone for understanding simple compressible systems.This study investigates whether utilizing three-dimensional P-v-T surface models in instruction makes the content more accessible to engineering students.Participants in this investigation came from a flipped-classroom undergraduate thermodynamics course.Volunteers are divided into two groups.The control group receives the standard video instruction on P-v-T surfaces using traditional two-dimensional illustrations.The test group is presented with a video lecture featuring rotating three-dimensional figures.Aside from the P-v-T visualization techniques, the content between the two lectures remains the same.Following completion of the lesson, students in both groups complete a multiple-choice online survey to assess their understanding of key concepts.While students who received the modified lesson had a higher average score on the post-lesson assessment than those who did not, there is not sufficient evidence to establish a statistically significant difference between the two groups.Students in the test group performed better on four out of the five survey questions as well, but once again statistical significance is not observed.A larger sample size is required to more rigorously assess the efficacy of the visualization techniques.Even so, the increasing accessibility of three-dimensional visualization