Abstract:

The purpose of this article is based on evaluating a didactic course in thermodynamics applied to students of mechanical and aeronautical maintenance technology from the Simon Bolivar University. The proposal based on meaningful learning allows the student to identify, build, analyze and summarize the basic concepts of thermodynamics existing technical or industrial application in the areas of aeronautics and mechanical thermodynamic cycles where there primarily. Therefore an individual activity was assigned to 25 students, which gradually developed over time into four phases: description of the technical or industrial application, which analyzes identify and develop the physical principles involved in implementation, identifying concepts thermodynamic involved and custom construction thereof. Students generated concepts of temperature, pressure, heat transfer thermodynamic diagrams, equipment thermodynamic heat, thermal efficiency, work, thermodynamic cycle, the first law of thermodynamics, refrigeration cycle, latent heat, combustion enthalpy understanding adiabatic isothermal process, among others, which are the result of the analysis process once the construct becomes meaningful. Students activated useful actions that allowed them to generate patterns of reasoning to construct thermodynamic concepts that were initially identified. We conclude that since the focus of significant learning, students achieve higher levels of domain knowledge and better enforcement are the contents that are usually abstract principle, which require proper understanding to reach the level of an application practical

Keywords:

Meaningful learning, thermodynamics, thermodynamic cycles, practical application of basic concepts of thermodynamics.