Available pedagogic resources

Last modified: 11/08/2007 06:52 PM

Available pedagogic resources

This page gives some direct links towards the available pedagogic resources, which correspond to six main classes. Additionally are listed at the page bottom some other ones.

thematic pages.
whole set of Diapason sessions.
written media.
guidance pages for practical works.
compounds models and the components models for an extension of the Thermoptim kernel.
some papers relative to pedagogy in applied thermodynamics.

These resources can be combined to form complete courses or simply parts of course, according to the teaching goals pursued by the teachers and the students.

We prepared to your attention a series of self-training thematic modules, which define thematic trails browsing through the available resources. They implement a progression from the bases to personal activities, some of which can be relatively complex.

The thematic pages are on one hand a rough introduction to thermodynamics, and on the other hand they are linked to other educational activities (online courses, exercises ...). Available in the sections of the portal (Basis of thermodynamics, Methodological guides, Technologies, Global issues), they enable you to review the whole course, as if you were reading the sections of a book, but with a rapid view of each tackled subject.

There are about fifty Diapason sessions, they represent a set of 900 screens, of which 85 % are provided with a soundtrack (total soundtrack reading duration: 10 hours). You may obviously select only a sub-set of these sessions to complete your own teaching.

The written media are mostly extracts from the book " Energy powered systems". This book is edited by " Les Presses de l'Ecole des Mines de Paris ". These extracts can be downloaded either from the synthetic and thematic pages, or from the Diapason sessions.

The guidance pages for practical works constitute a new kind of pedagogic resource, particularly interesting, in a dual manner.

Firstly, they may propose to students personal activities consisting of practical works, exercises or projects, whereas the Diapason sessions are related only to the course and the step by step guided exercises.
Secondly, they constitute a specially flexible way for the teachers to reappropriate and to give a personal touch to already developed resources, because of their structure and their contents which is indicative more than normative.

The teachers should discover with great benefit these resources, because their content is more a description than some norms assumptions.

Among those available pages, the topics are:

solar power station SEGS,
turbojets,
solar ponds,
fuel cells,
OTEC thermodynamic cycles,
cooling towers,
oxy-combustion cycles (AZEP).

The Thermoptim model library includes numerous models developed as external classes, with which you may mathematically describe components or substances not present in the Thermoptim kernel. This should be useful to stimulate innovative energy systems, especially those with a low environmental impact, such as fuel cells, solar power stations ...

The development of Thermoptim and of the Diapason modules on one hand have induced a complete renewal in the pedagogy of applied thermodynamics and on the other hand has resulted in an in-depth reflection about pedagogy with various communications.

Various resources

With the ExPLiSite modules (Pedagogic Explorations of Energy Powered Systems Technologies Simulation) the students may realize the detailed study of the three main instances of energy powered systems : i.e. the refrigeration cycle, the gas turbine and the steam power station.

They constitute an interesting complement to the Diapason sessions with which one may start learning these cycles. They are available only in French.