Conference Session

Emerging Issues in Materials Education

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Diane Folz, Virginia Tech; Christine Burgoyne, Virginia Tech; Janis Terpenny, Virginia Tech; Richard Goff, Virginia Tech

Tagged Divisions

Materials

Page 14.1017.2allowed for a change to the laboratory courses without significant impact on the content orquality of the lecture courses.Incorporated into each of these courses – before and after the curriculum change -- was a strongcommunications component. The assignments were developed with the goal of teachingstudents to provide succinct, well-written evidence of their laboratory work through memos andprogress reports. Assignments were graded by both the technical and the communicationsinstructors, providing an assessment of the writing quality as well as technical content.In addition to a change in the curriculum was a change in instructors for these labs. Theprocessing lab was assigned to a new faculty member in fall 2007, and the

Conference Session

Introduction to Materials Courses

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Jonathan Stolk, Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering

Tagged Divisions

Materials

processes culminate in tangible, created products; and writing, music, dance, andart courses offer similar production of created works. Contributing to the idea that design coursesare the place for creativity is the growing body of educational research on students’ creative skilldevelopment in design settings. Design courses often serve as the focal piece for engineering Page 14.918.6studies of creativity, and engineering instructors have achieved good success with a variety ofapproaches to creativity. Lewis suggests that design projects are “ideal for exposing [students] tothe creative process”, and he emphasizes that techniques for flexible and