Student understanding of the second law of thermodynamics and the underlying concepts of heat, temperature, and thermal equilibrium

This dissertation reports on a project to improve student understanding of the second law of thermodynamics. Through the administration of written questions and individual student interviews, we have identified a variety of specific conceptual and reasoning difficulties students have with the second law of thermodynamics and the related concept of entropy. In addition, we have identified student difficulties with the concepts of heat and temperature that, in some cases, contribute to problems they have applying more the advanced ideas of the second law and entropy. All of these findings guided the design of curriculum to improve student learning in algebra- and calculus-based introductory physics courses. We comment on some formal problems with the way entropy and the second law are typically presented and argue for stricter use of the phrase "the second law of thermodynamics."...