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

9752990 互动性已经被引入到物理导论课程中，并取得了巨大的成功。 互动式物理课堂不仅强化了学生对运动的先入为主的观念，还让学生对技术材料有了更深入、更概念化的理解。 该项目将通过机械工程系提供的先进材料科学实验室的真实案例研究引入互动性。 然而，除了互动活动外，学生还将有机会发展重要的工作技能，如写作，口头陈述，团队合作和解决开放式问题。 具体来说，基于现实生活中的情况下的案例研究将介绍给学生在一个互动的计算机程序。 在了解问题和利害关系后，学生将被要求将自己置于案例研究中，作为解决问题的任务的工业工程师或顾问。 他们将使用实际的材料测试设备收集数据，并以书面和口头报告的形式为课堂的其他部分解释数据。 建议进行前测试和后测试，以评估这种新格式的成功。 所提出的新案例研究都是虚构的，但将努力从工业界寻找实际案例研究，以纳入实验室练习。 该项目的目标是双重的：设计实验室练习与案例研究，使学生能够将实验室活动与现实世界的问题，并在参与实验室的过程中发展重要的工作技能。 学生应该完成课程，更好地了解材料测试方法及其含义，并提高工作技能，最终使他们更有就业能力和更好的工程师。

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.