The use of infrared thermography to create a bridge connecting physics in the lab to physics of building

Last year, in a secondary technical Italian school for building, a group of secondary school students used a thermocamera to detect heat leakage due to thermal bridge in their school building. The activity was a part of a multidisciplinary project based on energy problem, in particular associated with energy consumption in buildings. The students had a first approach to the building control-related problems. The activity had two main purposes: 1) to make the students aware of the importance of thermovision as a good method of non destructive testing; thermovision in building analysis is addressed both to the study of the monument by giving visual documentation of not-in-sight structural elements and to monitoring surface degradation in order to have a diagnostic of moisture or plaster detachments. A thermographic survey has the advantage of being applied to extended areas. Modern thermocameras have a sensibility of few hundreds of degrees. It’s easy to realize how thermographic shots, even if represent only few cm thick of the superficial layer of investigated walls, can detect thermal anomalies on a surface directly related to the presence of different materials due to remaking or modification of the building. 2) to create a link between the study of Physics and its application to reality (it’s well known how this strict connection makes the learning easier!). The activity was the starting point for the study of thermodynamics. The subsequent use of a thermocamera in lab activities positively influenced the comprehension of important Physical conceptual knots, such as thermal conductivity. We’ll describe the active role played by the students and the motivations at the base of the choice of the so called students ownership of learning methodology.