Impact of Materials on Society (IMOS) Workshop

材料研究部将于2014年12月在波士顿材料研究会上举办为期一天的研讨会，讨论和传播一门名为《材料对社会的影响》的跨学科工程-人文-社会科学课程，该课程旨在同时提高本科生的科学和社会素养。这次会议将为材料科学和更广泛的工程的教育基础设施做出贡献，通过提供一个模型，在全国各地的机构在材料科学和工程、人文和社会科学的研究之间建立更广泛的桥梁，以研究如何创造成功的技术，以尊重人类的价值观和信仰体系的方式解决关键的社会问题。尤其是此时此刻，迫切需要让这些领域与材料科学和工程学进行富有成效的对话。这种对话将把技术和科学知识与社会生活和人类经验的当代研究结合起来，从而加强教师研究以及本科生和研究生的学习。这样的对话还将满足全国各地对跨学科、创业性、创新性和创造性课程基础的需求。在过去的20年里，工程教育者一直在寻求超越工程课堂传统讲课形式的教学策略。在需要通过证明工程师，或者更具体地说，材料科学家和工程师，不仅是“喜欢数学和科学”的人，而且还是“创造性的问题解决者”，通过改善我们的“健康、幸福和安全”来帮助“塑造我们的未来”的背景下，这种探索尤其重要。这种对工程学重要社会作用的强调，既是为了提高广大公众的科学素养，也是为了教育未来的工程师，让他们了解他们工作所处的全球、环境和社会背景。为了实现这些目标，开发了一门名为“材料对社会的影响”的跨学科工程-人文-社会科学课程，旨在通过一门课程努力同时提高本科生的科学和社会素养。通过正式和独立的评估，该课程已被证明显著提高了三个变量：工科学生的社会素养，非工科学生的科学技术素养，以及任何专业的学生通过让他们了解材料科学和工程在整个人类文明中的作用、价值和重要性，认识到科学素养和社会素养之间的相互联系。到目前为止，这门课程只在佛罗里达大学开发和教授。材料研究司正在支持2014年12月在材料研究学会波士顿会议上举办一次为期一天的讲习班，向其他试点机构传播课程设计和评估工具，以传播课程结果，扩大课程的影响，并收集关于如何向不同学生群体教授社会和科学知识的更多数据。

NON TECHNICALThe Division of Materials Research is supporting a one-day workshop in December 2014 at the Boston meeting of the Materials Research Society to discuss and disseminate an interdisciplinary engineering-humanities-social science course entitled the "Impact of Materials on Society" which seeks to improve simultaneously the scientific and social literacies of undergraduate students. This meeting will contribute to the educational infrastructure of materials science, and engineering more broadly, by providing a model for building broader bridges at institutions around the country between research in materials science and engineering, the humanities, and social sciences to examine how to create successful technologies that address critical social issues in ways that respect human values and belief systems. There is a pressing need, at this moment in particular, to bring these fields into productive dialogue with materials science and engineering. Such a dialogue will strengthen faculty research and undergraduate and graduate learning by marrying technical and scientific knowledge with contemporary research into social life and human experience. Such a dialogue will also feed demands for interdisciplinary, entrepreneurial, innovative, and creative curriculum foundations around the country.TECHNICALFor the past 20 years, engineering educators have sought teaching strategies that move beyond the traditional lecture format of the engineering classroom. This search is particularly important in the context of a need to "change the conversation" about engineering by demonstrating that engineers, or more specifically material scientists and engineers, are not simply people who "like math and science", but who are also "creative problem-solvers" that help "shape our future" by improving our "health, happiness, and safety". This emphasis on the important social role of engineering seeks both to improve the scientific literacy of the broader public, as well as to educate future engineers about the global, environmental, and social contexts in which they work. To address these goals, an interdisciplinary engineering-humanities-social science course was developed entitled the "Impact of Materials on Society" which seeks to improve simultaneously the scientific and social literacies of undergraduate students with one curricular endeavor. Through formal and independent evaluation, the course has been demonstrated to increase significantly three variables: the social literacy of engineering students, the scientific and technical literacy of non-engineering students, and the awareness of students of any major to the interconnections between scientific and social literacies through exposing them to the role, values, and importance of material science and engineering throughout human civilization. To date the course has been developed and taught only at the University of Florida. The Division of Materials Research is supporting a one-day workshop in December 2014 at the Boston meeting of the Materials Research Society to disseminate the course design and evaluation tools to other pilot institutions to disseminate the results of the course, to broaden the impact of the course, and to collect additional data on how social and scientific literacies can be taught to diverse student groups.