Final Development of a New Approach to Introductory Materials Science

该项目支持举办一个讲习班，目的是使材料科学和工程入门课程的教师熟悉过去四年在宾夕法尼亚大学开发的一种新方法。我们的目标是激励这些教师尝试这种方法，并为即将进入最后修订阶段的新课程编写的课文提供意见。该课程面向包括材料科学在内的任何工程学科的一年级或二年级本科生，以及在物理、化学和微积分方面有高中水平的高级准备的非工程学学生。创新之处在于将现在传统类型的入门课程中涵盖的所有主题放在学生第一次遇到该主题的熟悉环境中。这是通过使用自行车和随身听作为范例来实现的，实际上是两个巨大的案例研究。这些背景的使用使学生能够在一学期的课程中以统一的方式理解主题，并能够将其应用于工程情况。这也刺激了更多的学生在更高的水平上追求这门学科，当然，与传统类型的课程相比。这种新方法的潜在影响是，能够在各自学科中应用材料科学和工程基本原理的工程学学生数量显著增加，同时，将工程学作为一门专业吸引的未投入工作的学生数量也有所增加。

This project supports a workshop aimed at the familiarization of teachers of introductory courses in materials science and engineering with a new approach developed over the past four years at the University of Pennsylvania. The goals are to stimulate these teachers to experiment with this approach and to give input into the text developed for the new course, which is approaching the stage of final revision. The course is aimed at first- or second-year undergraduates in any engineering discipline, including materials science, and at non-engineering students with advanced high-school-level preparation in physics, chemistry, and calculus. The innovation consists in placing all the topics covered in the now-traditional type of introductory course into a familiar context for students encountering the subject for the first time. This is done by using the bicycle and the Walkman as the paradigms for, in effect, two giant case studies. The use of these contexts enables the student to comprehend the subject in a unified way in a one-semester course and to be able to apply it to engineering situations. It has also stimulated more of them to pursue the subject at a higher level than was the case with the traditional-type of course. The potential impact of this new approach is a significant increase in the number of engineering students able to apply the basic principles of materials science and engineering in their own disciplines, as well as some increase in the number of uncommitted students attracted to engineering as a major.