A THERMOELECTRIC MODULAR TEACHING UNIT BASED ON SEEBECK EFFECT

To address the lack of a coherent content structure in traditional thermoelectric laboratory teaching and the “black-box” problem associated with commercially available integrated instruments, a modular thermoelectric teaching apparatus based on the Seebeck effect was developed in this study. The system employs a multi-stage series-connected thermopile to enhance weak thermoelectric signals and uses linear regression to achieve high-precision and repeatable measurements of the Seebeck coefficients of different types of thermocouples. The measured results agree well with standard reference values, verifying the reliability and measurement stability of the apparatus. Owing to its open structural design and clear physical principles, the apparatus enables students to conduct a relatively systematic inquiry process involving signal amplification, error analysis, and thermoelectric properties. It also helps students establish effective connections between experimental data and physical modeling. Therefore, this apparatus provides a reconfigurable experimental platform for inquiry-based learning in related courses and promotes the transformation of thermoelectric laboratory teaching from verification-oriented experiments to inquiry-oriented exploration.