Investigation of student reasoning skills about flow processes in logistics (Short Paper)
We present preliminary results of a pilot study investigating the reasoning skills of students in logistics and mobility in the context of hydrodynamics. Particularly, we were interested in the students' thinking of parcel flow in logistics and steady-state pipe flow. Our goal was to investigate if students of logistics would show more, less, the same, or different misconceptions commonly found in students confronted with hydrodynamics problems. We hypothesize that, due to their exposure to flow-like systems (transport chains, band conveyors, hub systems etc.), students develop a certain intuition about flow processes. Interviews were held with several students that attended “Transportation and Handling Technology” at Hamburg University of Technology (TUHH) in the two winter semesters of 2020/2021 and 2021/2022. We found that half of the students were unable to solve questions regarding the parcel flow on a band conveyor or the steady-state flow in a narrowed pipe, while the other half of the participants showed the correct understanding of flow processes to solve all the problems. We present evidence that misconceptions about hydrodynamics strongly affected participants' ability to solve logistics problems. We also discuss the application of our findings for instruction in logistics.