A European Project on Materials Science: The Case of Thermal Conductivity Teaching—Learning Sequence

In the context of the European Project on Material Science we have developed a Teaching Learning Sequence (TLS), which is composed by units for teaching thermal conductivity in depth to students. The scientific content has been adapted to students’ conceptions taking into account research results. Units follow the Predict‐Observe‐Explain strategy and students conduct guided investigations using an enriched learning environment, which consists of extensive use of ICT based tools. Didactically transformed microscopic models depict thermal interactions in iconic, graphic and symbolic forms. Students working in groups, solve problems, explore models and are engaged in classroom discussion on the problem under study, constructing links between evidence and explanations. In this paper the structure of such innovative units is presented and results showing students’ development in scientific understanding are reported.