Measuring the combustion heat of wood energy sources is a topic that remains unexplored within a didactic point of view. The thesis presents a method of determining the combustion heat of wood energy sources in the context of technology education - Engineering and technology, Physics, Science and technology and Natural sciences.
There are presented the theoretical bases of converting biomass into energy usable form, and the influence of various factors on the process of burning wood as energy source. Furthermore, there is a description of the calorimeter's manufacture and its testing. An empirical determination of a prototype calorimeter's accuracy is also included. There is given an example of implementation of technology days, based on inquiry learning. Also a production of pre- and post-test, which can determine the effectiveness of the technology days' implementation is presented and analyzed.
The experimental research method was used to found out that, in practice, we could carry out a technology day on the calorimetry's topic by inductive method of inquiry based learning. There is a draft of a lesson plan given. Lesson plan is designed for the execution of two technology days. Elements of both technology days that would be examined in the context of inquiry based learning are: students' participation within the group, activity of each student as individual and way of coping with their task in the group and as individuals. The use of different data sources, quality and number of specified options to improve the verifiability of a given variable, examined by group, would also be tested. The presence of inquiry based learning elements would be verified by the results of the pre- and post-test and by the observation of each student within a group. The intensity of the knowledge acquired would be measured by the pre- and post-test.
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