Collaborative project on thermal cameras in teaching

Jesper Haglund, working together with teachers, has developed opened-ended laboratory activities in thermodynamics, and studied how thermal cameras can be used in teaching.

“Today students at the physics bachelor programme and engineering students have the possibility to see phenomena such as heat radiation and heat conduction by means of thermal cameras.”

As part of the project, the teachers in thermodynamics will further develop laboratory activities during the autumn 2016. Thanks to the project, other students at the Faculty of Science and Technology will also have access to the technology. For example, thermal cameras will be used for laboratory exercises in calorimetry, where chemistry students study temperature changes as different solid substances dissolve in water, and during laboratory exercises and projects on energy efficiency in buildings. The course development will also lay the groundwork for disciplinary-based educational research investigating what students learn on the courses.

“We hope that the project can serve as a first step towards deeper collaboration between Uppsala University and FLIR regarding how thermal cameras can be used in undergraduate education”, says Jesper Haglund.

The project will be conducted within the programme Verifiering för Samverkan (VFS, “Verification for Collaboration”), which is funded by Vinnova and coordinated by UU Innovation. The purpose of VFS is to stimulate and facilitate long-term collaboration between academia, business, and society. The programme runs for the third consecutive year, and this year 36 applications were received, out of which 10 were awarded funding.