arxiv: 2604.03326 · v1 · submitted 2026-04-02 · ⚛️ physics.ed-ph

Recognition: no theorem link

The Physics of Gudeg: Learning the Mechanics and Thermal Properties Using Collaborative Project based Activities for the High School Physics

Bayu Setiaji, Febrina Siska Widyaningtyas, Heru Kuswanto, Pramudya Wahyu Pradana, Purwoko Haryadi Santoso, Yusman Wiyatmo

Pith reviewed 2026-05-13 19:59 UTC · model grok-4.3

classification ⚛️ physics.ed-ph

keywords Gudegphysics educationproject-based learningcollaborative teachingmechanicsthermal propertieshigh school physicstraditional food

0 comments

The pith

Making Gudeg illustrates high school physics through density, elasticity, and heat transfer in its preparation steps.

A machine-rendered reading of the paper's core claim, the machinery that carries it, and where it could break.

The paper examines how processes in preparing Gudeg, a traditional Indonesian jackfruit dish from Yogyakarta, connect to core physics ideas suitable for high school curricula. Researchers conducted interviews with Gudeg makers to extract five themes: density during skin peeling, Young's modulus in fruit sections, texture and torque relations, boiling impacts on texture, and conduction plus convection in preservation. They propose collaborative project-based teaching that involves teachers, students, and local practitioners to run simple experiments and demonstrations on these themes. This method is presented as a way to make abstract concepts concrete by tying them to familiar cultural activities. The approach is intended to support better conceptual understanding while involving multiple educational roles.

Core claim

By thematizing Gudeg production into five physics-linked themes drawn from interviews with makers, collaborative project-based teaching supplies accessible experiments and demonstrations of mechanics and thermal properties that promote conceptual learning in high school physics.

What carries the argument

Five learning themes extracted from qualitative interviews with Gudeg makers, mapped onto physics concepts and enacted through collaborative projects involving teachers, students, and practitioners.

Load-bearing premise

The five themes from Gudeg making map directly onto standard high school physics concepts and the collaborative project method will promote effective conceptual learning without further validation.

What would settle it

A comparison study of physics concept test scores between students doing Gudeg-based projects and those in standard classes that finds no significant difference would undermine the claim of effective learning.

read the original abstract

In this paper, we describe a presentation on the physics of Gudeg, a traditional food from Indonesia specifically originated in the Special District of Yogyakarta. This learning context is designed for the high school physics curricula. The physics presentation focuses on the making processes of Gudeg. Qualitative interviews with Gudeg makers were carried out by the researchers to thematize the process of making Gudeg and highlight its educational connections for the physics learning. Five extracted learning themes are how the density concept behind peeling the jackfruit skin (main Gudeg ingredient), how the relation between the Youngs modulus concept and the jackfruit sections, how the texture-torque experiment of the sweet and tasty gudeg, how the effect of boiling mechanism on the texture of the jackfruit, and how the conduction and convection of the preserved Gudeg. Using our learning strategy which is so-called Collaborative Project based Teaching, we provide simple experimentations and demonstrations of the physical concepts behind these Gudeg processes that are promising for conceptual physics learning by managing triple educational roles between teachers, students, and Gudeg practitioners. This approach can be generally adopted beyond physics to promote the excitement of traditional knowledge which can enhance pedagogical approach in educational setting.

Editorial analysis

A structured set of objections, weighed in public.

Desk editor's note, referee report, simulated authors' rebuttal, and a circularity audit. Tearing a paper down is the easy half of reading it; the pith above is the substance, this is the friction.

Desk Editor's Note private letter to a colleague

This is a descriptive proposal linking Gudeg making to high school physics themes with no supporting student data.

read the letter

The paper describes using the process of making Gudeg to teach high school physics concepts through collaborative projects. It identifies five relevant themes from interviews with makers and outlines demonstrations, but stops short of showing any learning gains. The new part is the specific application to this Indonesian dish. The authors connect peeling to density, jackfruit sections to Young's modulus, texture to torque, boiling to texture changes, and preservation to conduction and convection. They propose involving teachers, students, and local practitioners, which could make the lessons feel more grounded. This approach does well at spotting everyday physics in a traditional activity and suggesting accessible experiments. The qualitative interview step gives a real basis for the themes rather than just guessing at connections. The main weakness is the absence of any evaluation. There are no student assessments, no pilot data, and no measures of whether the activities improve understanding. The claim that it is promising for conceptual learning therefore rests on untested assumptions about how well the mapping works in practice. This paper is for high school physics teachers interested in culturally relevant examples, particularly those working in Indonesia. A reader looking for ready-to-use lesson ideas might find value in the themes and demos. Someone expecting evidence of effectiveness will not get it here. I would send it to peer review. The core idea is clear and the cultural tie-in is genuine, so referees could help the authors add the missing evaluation component and strengthen the paper.

Referee Report

2 major / 3 minor

Summary. The manuscript proposes using the traditional Indonesian dish Gudeg as a context for high school physics education. Qualitative interviews with Gudeg makers yield five themes (density during jackfruit peeling, Young's modulus in fruit sections, texture-torque relations, boiling effects on texture, and conduction/convection in preservation) that are linked to physics concepts. The authors outline a collaborative project-based teaching strategy involving simple experiments and demonstrations, asserting that this manages educational roles among teachers, students, and practitioners and is promising for conceptual learning; the approach is suggested for broader adoption to connect traditional knowledge with pedagogy.

Significance. If the proposed mapping and activities were shown to produce measurable gains in conceptual understanding, the work could offer a culturally relevant, low-cost way to illustrate mechanics and thermal physics in high-school settings. At present the manuscript supplies only a descriptive outline with no outcome data, so its contribution remains prospective rather than demonstrated.

major comments (2)

[Abstract] Abstract: the assertion that the collaborative project-based activities are 'promising for conceptual physics learning' is unsupported by any student assessment data, pre/post measures, control comparisons, or pilot implementation results; the claim therefore rests solely on the untested assumption that the five interview-derived themes will translate into effective learning.
[Description of learning themes] The five extracted themes are presented only as qualitative summaries; no explicit alignment with specific high-school curriculum standards, learning objectives, or example assessment items is provided, leaving the claimed educational connections unverified and difficult to replicate or evaluate.

minor comments (3)

[Abstract] Abstract: 'Youngs modulus' should read 'Young's modulus'.
[Abstract] Abstract: the term 'so-called Collaborative Project based Teaching' is introduced without a definition or reference; a brief characterization or citation would clarify whether this is a standard method or a novel framing.
[Methods/Activities description] The manuscript contains no tables, figures, or sample lesson plans that would illustrate the proposed experiments, reducing clarity for readers who wish to adapt the activities.

Simulated Author's Rebuttal

2 responses · 0 unresolved

We thank the referee for the thoughtful and constructive comments. We agree that the manuscript is a descriptive proposal outlining a culturally contextualized approach rather than an empirical study with outcome data. We will revise the text to clarify this scope, tone down unsupported claims, and strengthen the explicit connections to curriculum standards.

read point-by-point responses

Referee: [Abstract] Abstract: the assertion that the collaborative project-based activities are 'promising for conceptual physics learning' is unsupported by any student assessment data, pre/post measures, control comparisons, or pilot implementation results; the claim therefore rests solely on the untested assumption that the five interview-derived themes will translate into effective learning.

Authors: We fully agree. The current wording overstates the contribution by implying demonstrated effectiveness. In the revised manuscript we will change the abstract to state that the activities are 'intended to support' or 'designed to promote' conceptual learning, explicitly framing the work as a proposal based on practitioner interviews and conceptual mapping, without claiming empirical validation. revision: yes
Referee: [Description of learning themes] The five extracted themes are presented only as qualitative summaries; no explicit alignment with specific high-school curriculum standards, learning objectives, or example assessment items is provided, leaving the claimed educational connections unverified and difficult to replicate or evaluate.

Authors: We accept this criticism. The original manuscript relies on implicit connections. We will add a new subsection (or table) that maps each of the five themes to specific high-school physics standards (drawing from the Indonesian Kurikulum Merdeka and comparable international frameworks such as NGSS), together with sample learning objectives and example formative assessment items for each theme. This will make the educational linkages explicit and replicable. revision: yes

Circularity Check

0 steps flagged

No circularity; purely descriptive educational proposal with no derivations or self-referential reductions

full rationale

The paper extracts five themes from qualitative interviews with Gudeg makers (density in peeling, Young's modulus in sections, texture-torque, boiling effects, conduction/convection) and outlines a collaborative project-based teaching strategy. No equations, predictions, fitted parameters, or derivations appear anywhere in the manuscript. The central claim that the approach is 'promising for conceptual physics learning' is an untested assertion resting on the mapping of themes to physics concepts, but this does not reduce any result to its own inputs by construction. No self-citations, uniqueness theorems, or ansatzes are invoked. The work is self-contained as a descriptive proposal; absence of empirical validation is a separate issue of evidence strength, not circularity.

Axiom & Free-Parameter Ledger

0 free parameters · 1 axioms · 0 invented entities

The central claim rests on the untested premise that interview-derived themes from Gudeg making directly support high school physics learning and that the triple-role collaborative method succeeds, without any empirical data or external benchmarks supplied in the abstract.

axioms (1)

domain assumption Collaborative project-based teaching involving teachers, students, and practitioners enhances conceptual physics learning.
Invoked when describing the learning strategy and its promise for conceptual learning.

pith-pipeline@v0.9.0 · 5555 in / 1267 out tokens · 48505 ms · 2026-05-13T19:59:03.981249+00:00 · methodology

discussion (0)

Reference graph

Works this paper leans on

2 extracted references · 2 canonical work pages

[1]

A., Prahani, B

Deta, U. A., Prahani, B. K., Suprapto, N., & Diani, R. (2024). Research Trends of Physics Local Wisdom in Scopus Database in Ten Years (2013-2022): A Bibliometric Analysis. E3S Web of Conferences, 482, 03008. https://doi.org/10.1051/e3sconf/202448203008 Dewi, P . Y . A., & Primayana, K. H. (2019). Effect of Learning Module with Setting Contextual Teaching...

work page doi:10.1051/e3sconf/202448203008 2024
[2]

https://doi.org/10.1186/s42779-022- 00134-7

work page doi:10.1186/s42779-022-