Infrared Thermography in Science Education: A Project-Based Approach to Enhancing Learning and Motivation

Infrared thermography detects infrared radiation with thermal cameras, allowing the visualization of temperature distribution and the analysis of physical and chemical phenomena inaccessible to direct observation. This work highlights its didactic potential in science education, reducing the abstraction of phenomena, increasing student learning and motivation.

In 2025, a project with 22 tenth-grade students from the Science Club of a public school in the interior of Portugal, active since 2006, explored infrared thermography. With a methodology based on projects and themes chosen by the students, the study articulated science, daily life, and community, integrating disciplines such as Physics, Chemistry, and Mathematics, favoring an interdisciplinary approach centered on experimentation. Each student developed activities and/or investigated distinct scientific principles, united in a collective work. The club, recognized nationally and internationally, has already received about 30 awards in the field of education.

The results obtained are presented in three dimensions: technical–professional applications, didactic applications based on the analysis of thermal images, and didactic applications aimed at determining physical constants. Phenomena such as thermal conduction and convection, absorption and emission of infrared radiation, and exothermic and endothermic reactions, as well as the determination of the specific heat capacity of a metal and the specific enthalpy of fusion of water, were explored. The students involved obtained high grades in the experimental component, higher than those of students who addressed the same content without the use of thermography. The applications developed were also presented by the students at scientific dissemination events, contributing to the promotion of science.

It is concluded that infrared thermography, by making visible phenomena associated with matter and energy, establishes itself as a pedagogical resource of high educational value. Its ease of use and progressively more accessible cost reinforce the relevance of its integration into pre-university science education