Teaching Materials Engineering

1 Teaching Materials Engineering an updated guide 2nd edition Edited and updated by Peter J Goodhew Teaching Materials Engineering : an updated guide Preface In 2003 the UK Centre for Materials Education published a series of booklets entitled Guides for Lecturers . Since then the annual workshop for new lecturers in Materials , based partly on the content of the Guides, has become an established feature of the Teaching calendar. In 2010 I wrote a more general text entitled Teaching Engineering . It now seems timely to update the Guides and publish them as a single supplement to Teaching Engineering , containing ideas and examples specific to Materials Science and Engineering .

2 In order to make each section readable on its own, and to preserve some of the idiosyncrasies of the original authors, I have unashamedly re-used much of the text from many of the original guides. Although this has resulted in some inconsistency of style, I hope it helps the reader more than it irritates! I must give full credit to the original authors, who are listed below. Cheryl Anderson, Cris Arnold, Caroline Baillie, Mike Bramhall, James Busfield, Claire Davis, Lewis Elton, Mark Endean, Elizabeth Hazel, Shanaka Katuwawala, Adam Mannis, Ivan Moore, Ton Peijs, Stephen Skinner, Elizabeth Wilcock and John Wilcox.

3 I have frequently changed the original first person singular (I) to first person plural (we). In doing so we indicates that I share the blame for mistakes or inadequacies with the original authors! All of the 2003 Guides and most of the documents and reports mentioned in this updated guide are available on the UKCME web site [ ] and also in CORE- Materials [ ]. Peter Goodhew, August 2011. Editor: Peter Goodhew Page 1. Teaching Materials Engineering : an updated guide Contents Page Introduction 04. Part 1: What to teach 09.

4 Materials for Engineers 11. Environmental Materials 14. Professional Skills 21. Part 2: How you might teach it 31. Problem Based Learning 32. Case Studies 45. Laboratory Classes 55. Tutoring 70. Learning at a Distance 77. Part 3: How to assess the students' learning 89. Part 4: How to evaluate your own success 105. Part 5: Example Case Studies 115. C1: A Review Case Study Assignment 115. C2: A Reverse Engineering Case Study 116. C3: Environmental Materials Use in the 118. Automotive Industry C4: Waste Electric and Electronic Equipment 120.

5 (WEEE). C5: Chocolate: A Materials Approach 122. C6: Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster 123. C7: Metallic Bicycle Components 124. C8: Windsurfing Masts 125. Editor: Peter Goodhew Page 2. Teaching Materials Engineering : an updated guide C9: Joining Processes 126. C10: Example PBL: The Court Case 128. C11: Sustainable Development 130. Appendix 1: Meeting Review Form 141. Appendix 2: Assessment Form 142. Appendix 3: Peer Assessment Form 143. Appendix 4: Group Assessment Form 144. References 146. Bibliography 148. Editor: Peter Goodhew Page 3.

6 Teaching Materials Engineering : an updated guide Introduction The text is arranged in an attempt to address, in five parts: 1. What to teach;. 2. How you might teach it;. 3. How to assess the students learning;. 4. How to evaluate your own success; and 5. Some case studies and generic templates. We have done this on the clear understanding that Materials is taught in several contexts. A minority of Teaching is delivered within a Materials Department or School, to undergraduate programmes with Materials in their title.

7 A larger proportion of Teaching is within Departments or Schools of Engineering , where Materials features as a minor but important subject often loosely called Materials for Engineers . A further tranche of Teaching occurs within a wider range of disciplines where there is a special need for an understanding of Materials , but this is often not recognised as being central (although perhaps it ought to be!). Among these disciplines are Art & Design, Dentistry, Medicine, Architecture, Earth Sciences, Physics and Chemistry.

8 Benchmarks for the Teaching of Materials In the UK, you might expect the QAA Benchmark statements and the Engineering Council s UK-SPEC to give some guidance on the Materials content and appropriate topics for this variety of Teaching contexts, but you would be largely disappointed. Materials programmes in the UK all take note of the QAA. Benchmark statement for Materials [ InformationAndGuidance/ ]. It is a per- missive rather than a prescriptive document and some of its key content guidance is extracted in the table below.

9 We believe that all significant programmes conform to it, although this results in some quite diverse programmes with very different emphases. We have extracted all the (rather scarce) mentions of Materials from other Benchmark Statements and UK-SPEC and put them alongside some of the content statements from the Materials statement for comparison and to inform staff delivering Materials content in non- Materials programmes. Many of the statements are Editor: Peter Goodhew Page 4. Teaching Materials Engineering : an updated guide very general and cannot be specifically related to the Materials Statement.

10 Astonishingly the Engineering Benchmark Statement [www. ] makes not a single reference to the Materials from which all Engineering products are made. It makes no reference to curriculum content and defers to the UK-SPEC [www. ] on this key issue. UK-SPEC itself has only a single reference to Materials in the context of the lowest level (Eng Tech). However, some of the individual accrediting institutions do mention Materials in their own supporting documentation. Since matter is everything that can be touched, seen, smelt or felt, it follows that the scope of the Chemistry discipline is essentially limitless.