The microwave radiation has been widely used in the processing and preparation of food due to ease of operation and reduced heating time compared to conventional methods. Heating with microwaves has also been used in laboratories for sample preparation for chemical analysis, including drying, extraction, digestion and distillation steps. Thus, it is important to know the basics of heating with microwave and identify its main advantages and limitations. Thus, we proposed the use of cheese cubes in different experiments to demonstrate some basic concepts of heating microwave. In this way, different cheese types were heated in microwave oven. Parameters such as position in the turntable, size, temperature, load and composition of the samples were evaluated. To evaluate the experiments, digital images in both visible and thermal infrared were used. According to the results, it was demonstrated that microwaves exhibit heterogeneous behavior and the size and initial temperature of the cheese cubes influenced heating pattern. Furthermore, it was observed that larger quantities of cheese results in lower heating rates, while the food composition influenced heating. Considering the aspects explored in this study, we found that the use of cheese samples and the use of digital images contributed to better learning and construction of knowledge about basic principles of heating by microwave radiation. Moreover, the use of infrared images could be used for the quantitative evaluation of cheeses that could not be explained only by using images obtained in the visible range.