POWRE: Introducing Interactive Case Studies in the Advanced Materials Science Laboratory

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9752990 Interactivity has been introduced to introductory physics courses with dramatic success. Instead of just reinforcing the students' preconceived ideas about motion, an interactive physics classroom gives students a deeper and more conceptual understanding of technical material. This project will introduce interactivity through real-life case studies in an advanced materials science laboratory offered through the Mechanical Engineering Department. In addition to the interactive activities, however, students will also get the opportunity to develop important job skills such as writing, oral presentation, working on teams and open-ended problem solving. Specifically, case studies based on real-life situations will be introduced to the students in an interactive computer program. After learning about the problem and what is at stake, students will be asked to place themselves in the case study as engineers or consultants in industry given the task of resolving a problem. They will collect data using actual materials testing equipment and interpret the data for the rest of the class in the form of a written and oral presentation. Pre- and post-tests are suggested to assess the success of this new format. The new case studies that are proposed are all fictional, but efforts will be made to find actual case studies from industry to incorporate into the laboratory exercises. The goals of this project are two-fold: to design laboratory exercises with case studies so students can associate laboratory activities with real-world problems and to develop important job skills in the process of participating in the laboratory. Students should finish the course with a better appreciation for materials testing methods and what they mean and improved job skills, which ultimately makes them more employable and better engineers.