In a 1992 issue of the International Journal of Engineering Education, this author reported on the effects of laboratory group size on student performance. Most of the information was obtained from a material science laboratory. The data indicate that individuals in groups of two or four students tended to receive better final course grades than those from groups of three. Discussion was given concerning the possible reasons for this finding along with information from the then current literature. This paper includes the key components of the 1992 paper and updates it with data obtained since then. It also includes information from other literature published in the recent past. The conclusions reached in the 1992 paper appear to remain valid.

The Edible Microchip is a hands on workshop where participants fabricate on wafer (sugar wafers, that is) transistors. The transistors may not have cutting edge gate lengths. They may not have the industry standard for oxide thickness. Technically, they won't even work. However, they will be the tastiest microchips ever made, guaranteed!

The “fabrication” of the edible microchip will be used to step through semiconductor manufacturing using the medium of decorating cookies to explain each process step. The main steps that are covered in the demonstration are doping, deposition, and photolithography. By actively replicating these steps on cookies, the participants gain a good overview of the semiconductor process sequence regardless of their technical background.

The scope of technical information in the Edible Microchip program can be tailored for a range of ages and technical backgrounds. It can be used as a materials engineering recruitment tool for grades 6–12 audiences and lower division college students. The workshop can also be used to give an educational and entertaining introduction to semiconductor manufacturing for engineering students of varying disciplines.

The background of Estonian higher education in materials science and engineering is given and results of the reform of the higher education system in the Republic of Estonia are described. The formation of Centers of Strategic Competence in Materials Science is highlighted as one of the main results of this reform. The activities and results in the field of the development of an internationally recognized science-based curriculum for under- and postgraduate studies are described.

A review of the educational literature on naive concepts about principles of chemistry and physics and surveys of science museum visitors reveal that people of all ages have robust alternative notions about the nature of atoms, matter, and bonding that persist despite formal science education experiences. Some confusion arises from the profound differences in the way that scientists and the lay public use terms such as materials, metals, liquids, models, function, matter, and bonding. Many models that eloquently articulate arrangements of atoms and molecules to informed scientists are not widely understood by lay people and may promote naive notions among the public. Shifts from one type of atomic model to another and changes in size scales are particularly confusing to learners. People's abilities to describe and understand the properties of materials are largely based on tangible experiences, and much of what students learn in school does not help them interpret their encounters with materials and phenomena in everyday life. Identification of these challenges will help educators better convey the principles of materials science and engineering to students, and will be particularly beneficial in the design of the Materials MicroWorld traveling museum exhibit.

A new experiment to implement and collectively publish undergraduate students' research was started at the School of Technology, Eastern Illinois University in the Fall of 1998. A summary of the procedures followed in this experiment, its assessment and its progress are presented. Collective research publications, authored by undergraduate engineering students and edited by their faculty can be used as an effective teaching / learning tool that benefits students/authors, their peers, faculty/editors, local and other institutions, and industry at large, particularly when this research is interactively posted on the Internet. Through a research study format, undergraduates learn the subject matter much better, become familiar with research methods and techniques early in their careers, and polish their technical writing abilities. As the experiment also fosters teamwork and peer collaboration and evaluation, undergraduates sharpen their oral communication skills through group discussions and in-class presentations. The experiment provided an opportunity for students to independently select and research a particular topic and helped them discover the research resources and reference materials available on the subject matter. As one of the few creative opportunities offered in a class, this experiment presented a variety of learning environments to undergraduates and helped promote their creativity and self-directed learning. It was confirmed that most undergraduate students hold unlimited potential for success as researchers, and that enthusiasm, hard work, self-motivation, and dedication of students are likely to constitute better indicators of success than the conventional grades they earned in the past.

Cal Poly is in the process of revolutionizing how science and engineering students learn about semiconducting materials. Semiconducting polymers currently attract widespread attention as the subjects of numerous research and development projects. Semiconducting polymers are also excellent materials with which to teach structure-property relationships, polymer synthesis, polymer film preparation, optical and electronic properties, semiconductor device fabrication principles, and device testing.

One key benefit of these materials is that they encourage student participation in educational activities that bridge several disciplines. Semiconducting polymers improve student learning by making normally obscure semiconductor concepts more tangible for students in several disciplines: chemistry students create electronics applications for the compounds they synthesize, materials engineering students learn about opto-electronics techniques, and electrical engineering students gain hands-on experience with core concepts in semiconductor devices.

This presentation describes the interdisciplinary projects that students and faculty have participated in thus far, particularly during the phase of lab design and construction.

There are a number of teaching techniques that have proven very useful in involving the students and increasing their learning. As a new faculty member, I have chosen to improve my teaching by first implementing collaborative learning exercises into my classes. The exercises I have used include in-class group problem solving, informal study groups, and group term projects. In this paper, I will detail the published benefits of collaborative learning that led me to use this in my classes. The introduction of collaborative learning exercises into my lectures has also brought a number of problems and fears including time constraints, the practical issues of forming groups in large classes, and the barrier students have towards working together. From the perspective of a new faculty, I will discuss the problems I have had implementing collaborative work into my classes and tips for avoiding and overcoming the problems I have encountered.

The present paper discusses the outcomes of research exploring the formation of knowledge in one area of materials science, that of the ‘interface’ in composite materials. A series of interviews have been conducted with researchers from eight different countries, all involved in investigating a similar issue. Questions were aimed at exploring their understanding of certain key concepts. The interviews were transcribed and data analysed using a phenomenographic approach. Having a better understanding of the way in which the knowledge is understood by different researchers gives us a new way of helping students to approach their own understanding of the concepts. Students can see the concepts from many perspectives and realise that there is not one way to understand a scientific ‘fact’. This paper discusses the possibilities that this approach holds for Materials Science Education.

The University of Nevada, Reno (UNR) Physics Department has a successful history of involving undergraduate students in interdisciplinary research, including the fields of materials science and engineering. The group directed by Prof. Reinhard Bruch has given a number of undergraduates the opportunity to work on professional-level research projects early in their career development. In our Physics Department at UNR, it is common to have a high percentage of undergraduates involved in research projects. Therefore, we suggest that the Materials Science and Engineering Program could explore the potential opportunity for spawning inter-disciplinary research programs involving undergraduates.

We developed a foot-long aluminum “microscope” cantilever to use in our undergraduate laboratory. The detection mechanism is by means of a vibrating piezoelectric. The tip-sample interaction is obtained by means of springs attached at the end of the cantilever. The main objective is to provide students with a large cantilever from where they can build an intuitive feel of the instrument. Also, and perhaps more important, we teach the student how to extract forces from kinematics data. We let the cantilever move under the action of the interaction force, and record that motion as a voltage produced by the vibrating piezoelectric. That voltage is then processed to reproduce the F-d (Force-distance) curve. As opposed to what happens in the real microscope, in our case we have access to the sources of force and thus we can check the accuracy of our reconstruction algorithm by comparing our reconstructed Fd curve with the known one.

The recent advances in the internet communication technologies have provided convenient access to education for time-restricted and place-bound students. This article discusses the opportunities and implications for materials science and engineering educators to reach out, via online courses, to students engaged in a broad range of engineering disciplines. Based on observations in the design and online delivery of a course on the selection of materials, we shall examine in particular the issue of diverse student backgrounds and interests and discuss the benefits and problems of teaching a diverse student body.

An international study course program in Materials Science and Engineering based on innovative concepts in engineering education has been introduced by the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Kiel for students from Germany and especially from abroad. The study program offers advanced materials science education culminating in the internationally recognized degree “Master of Materials Science and Engineering”. It aims at providing students with the necessary skills to meet the challenges of a global job market and the demands of industry and research institutions in modern industrial societies. Some of the main characteristics of the program for which tuition fees are not required comprise theoretical teaching and lab training modules held in English language, internet teaching modules, a broad choice of courses including courses in nontechnical skills, a Master thesis in areas of functional or structural materials, collaboration with research institutes, as well as participation in the European credit point transfer system for international acceptance of the course work. The program has started successfully in 1999 with students coming mainly from the Eastern European countries.

The Interactive Nano-Visualization for Science and Engineering Education (IN-VSEE) project at Arizona State University (ASU) has developed a remotely operable scanning probe microscope (SPM), a visualization gallery of images, and a number of educational modules with materials themes. It exploits the incredible potential of materials science for teaching at the high school and college level about fundamental concepts that cross traditionally separated disciplines. The packing of spheres is a topic that is ideal for linking together the different science and engineering disciplines because of the ubiquity and relevance of spheres in the materials world and the universality of the rules that govern their packing over a large range of sizes. Students can perform a number of discovery-based learning activities, over the web by simultaneously using IN-VSEE's web-accessible module (e.g., The Music of Spheres) and by accessing the remotely-operable SPM for experimenting with nanosphere samples that they prepare. With these resources students can pose materials questions and are empowered to design their experiments to increase their understanding of real materials. The fundamental concepts (e.g., packing geometry, density, surface composition, long-range/short-range ordering, intermolecular forces, etc.) they learn through these materials science experiments are applicable to many other curricular, research, and technology areas.

The Internet Microscope is an image library, with a difference. Its web site (http://www.umist.ac.uk/~intmic/) is dedicated to the explanation and illustration of the relationship between microstructure, properties and processing in materials science. A growing selection of the samples is aimed directly at schools and colleges.

The microscope has been used with undergraduate teaching at the University in conjunction with computer presented multiple choice questions. It has replaced microscopy laboratories for a class of 100 engineering students, for whom materials science forms a small but important part of their syllabus. The microscope also allows students to test and revise their knowledge of phase diagrams.

The Internet Electron Microscope is an exciting development of the existing web site. It makes use of the concept of “Learning by Doing”. It will give schools and colleges on-line control of a free, simple and easy to use scanning electron microscope. Samples will range from sugar cubes to silicon chips, offering a real experience of microscopy.

A variety of educational resources are available in the area of materials science and engineering. These resources are widely dispersed and are often hard to find. Several efforts to collect and categorize the wide variety of educational modules, demonstrations, laboratories and texts have been launched in recent years, but none have been able to incorporate the vast majority of resources. The current effort is funded by NSF and has been collecting information from a variety of sources over the past year. It is being integrated with the Materials Education Library project that has been under way at the University of Michigan since 1997. These projects will result in a fully searchable database, published both on the world wide web and in a print catalog, with the first edition being available by summer 2000. The draft web site may be found at http://msewww.engin.umich.edu/MEL/; a permanent web site will be available by the end of 2000.

The ABET Engineering Criteria 2000 is stimulating development of quantitative feedback systems in the context of Engineering education. Efforts in developing feedback loops that carry quantitative information to facilitate the improvement of student learning in several engineering majors is summarized. Feedback loops are designed around the course learning objectives that were developed in the context of professional criteria specified by professional societies as well as ABET EC 2000 criteria 2 and 3, which define capabilities that all engineers must gain. Two feedback structures are described – one brings information from external sources such as alumni, employers, and the external advisory board, while the other moves information up and down the pedagogical prerequisite tree. Both loops go through the ABET/curriculum committee for assessment of progress and identification of needed changes. The tool developed to facilitate communication up and down the prerequisite tree is the course evaluation form, on which student and faculty assess students' mastery of the learning objectives. This form is passed through feedback loops that operate on many scales. Progress toward implementation is described, with emphasis on service courses that see student flow between different departments.

A sophomore materials science course has been developed at Texas A&M University as part of a larger five course sequence through the support of the National Science Foundation. Texas A&M University is a member of the NSF sponsored Foundation Coalition. The courses were developed to include active and collaborative learning, application of technology, and integration as important components. Currently, a majority of departments within the College of Engineering (COE) at Texas A&M University have adopted the five-course sequence. During fall 99, the COE is teaching the materials course to 260 students or four sections of 70 students each.

As part of the development of the materials class, a series of experiments have been developed for use within the classroom. The experiments give the students an opportunity to experience hands-on activities. Several of the activities are done within the classroom, while others are performed in a separate laboratory building. The classes consist of two- 1 h 50 min. periods, and this time provides the opportunity to have the laboratory activities in class. The experiments encourage the development of teams and support various applications of materials science. The majority of students have very limited laboratory experience, and this course provides them an opportunity to develop some laboratory skills. Currently, we do seven experiments: 4-point bending, tensile test: metals and polymers, heat treatment, thermal conductivity, viscosity demonstration, and electrical components. In the paper and during the presentation, we will demonstrate several of the experiments and provide examples of student work. A detailed description of each experiment will be included in the paper.

This paper describes a new program for teaching undergraduate laboratories in the School of Engineering and Applied Science at the University of Pennsylvania based on the idea that laboratories can be taught more efficiently, less expensively, and better through the use of World Wide Web-based technology. This technology is used to help the students prepare themselves before coming to the laboratory by becoming acquainted with the equipment, going through pre-lab exercises and taking pre-lab quizzes, both on the content of the work and on the safety considerations of the laboratory, all through web-based exercises.

We have shown that by using web-based teaching tools we can both improve the quality of an undergraduate laboratory while, at the same time, reducing costs. We have accomplished this by making a number of changes in the way laboratory courses are offered:

1. We are changing the way students prepare for laboratory periods by putting more information on the web, beginning the laboratories online before class.

2. We have instituted an institution-wide system of on-line grading.

3. We have shown that the costs of laboratory equipment can be dramatically reduced by using of special software on desktop computers to convert the computers into “virtual instruments”.

4. We have estimated the costs of teaching some of our laboratories using the so-called “ingredients method” of cost analysis and have shown that we are accomplishing substantial cost savings, up to 20%, in some cases.

For a variety of reasons, collaborative learning teams, project teams or design teams are now a part of undergraduate engineering education. In response, the current education-related literature is flourishing with team-type topics that include when and why teams, team dynamics, and how to structure teams. Almost non-existent, however, are discussions about the role and impact of the faculty member in and on student teams.

Extrapolating from the professional project management literature, project and team success is heavily influenced by positive management. Businesses that fail to train and reinforce positive management run unacceptable risks. The risks to us as educators, who use teams in less than ideal situations, include a lack of learning, project failure, and dysfunctional teams that foster an aversion to teams. This is in direct contrast to what we hoped and what we have been asked to do, which is to provide an understanding about the power of teams, to develop teaming skills, to enable design successes, and to enhance the learning.

Proper management of student teams requires skills and strategies that are much different from those that most faculty members are experienced with. The strategies include planning for and implementing an understood work process, providing a suitable organization compatible to that process, structuring and communicating with the team, and holding the individual accountable. The skills start with two risk taking beliefs: (1) you do not have to have all the answers and (2) it is not you against them, but about you with them. With the right attitude, the skills of leading by example, guiding towards peak performance, and managing for optimal team experiences follow.

Among undergraduates with math SAT scores above 600, the four most commonly cited concerns leading to switching majors from science, math, engineering and technology (SMET) include: (a) poor teaching by SMET faculty, (b) lack or loss of interest in science, (c) belief that non-SMET majors hold more interest, or offers a better education, and (d) feeling overwhelmed by the pace and load of curriculum demands [1]. Less than 50% of students who begin the study of engineering complete their education in the field. In 1999, approximately 150,000 students entered freshmen engineering programs in the United States; approximately 75,000 will not complete an engineering curriculum. The losses of these students from SMET majors occur at a time of increased demand for greater numbers of skilled graduates in engineering.

In order to retain students in engineering programs and produce a pool of technically skilled graduates that is currently needed, serious efforts are required to improve the quality of instruction in these programs. Teaching is the primary concern, since it is reflected in points (a) through (d) above, and therefore, improvements in teaching skills will have the greatest impact on our students. Since most teaching assistants (TAs) and new faculty have no formal training in instruction and assessment, there is a great need for systematic programs for teaching these instructors to improve their classroom effectiveness.

The National Science Foundation funded an extremely successful faculty enhancement workshop entitled “Teaching Teachers to Teach Engineering”, T4E, (1996–1998), which then evolved to the American Society of Civil Engineers' Excellence in Civil Engineering Education (ExCEEd) Program. This “learn by doing” workshop format ensures that participants will make substantive improvements in their teaching skills by the end of one week; it is touted a “be good” program rather than a “feel good” program. The adaptation of these programs as teaching workshops for new faculty and TAs at Northeastern University is discussed in light of our GE Master Teacher Program – a funded initiative to improve the success of freshman engineering students at NU.