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Implementation of Materials Science in the High School Classroom

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Conference

2016 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

New Orleans, Louisiana

Publication Date

June 26, 2016

Start Date

June 26, 2016

End Date

June 29, 2016

ISBN

978-0-692-68565-5

ISSN

2153-5965

Conference Session

Materials Division Technical Session 1

Tagged Division

Materials

Page Count

8

DOI

10.18260/p.25585

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/25585

Download Count

785

Paper Authors

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Alison K. Polasik The Ohio State University Orcid 16x16 orcid.org/0000-0002-0514-4789

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Glenn S. Daehn The Ohio State University

biography

Michelle R. McCombs The Ohio State University

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Michelle R. McCombs is the Program Manager and Education and Outreach Coordinator for the Center for Emergent Materials, an NSF MRSEC, CEM, at The Ohio State University. She received both her B.S. and M.S. in Chemistry at Western Kentucky University and M.A. in Science Education at the University of California, Davis. In addition to conducting evaluation for this Math and Science Partnership Program, she has led a range of education efforts for CEM including working with undergraduate and graduate STEM students to teach science lessons to inner city elementary students in Columbus, OH; organizing on-campus outreach efforts for middle school students; coordinating a summer Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program and organizing professional development experiences for graduate students and postdoctoral researchers. Prior to joining CEM, she worked at the University of California, Davis for a NSF funded Science and Technology Center, the Center for Biophotonics Science and Technology, where she led a variety of similar efforts.

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Abstract

Materials science is by nature an interdisciplinary field, and thus is ideally suited to integration with current physical and chemical science courses at the high school level. The Math and Science Partnership (MSP) program is aimed at teaching and equipping high school teachers to incorporate meaningful and interesting materials science laboratory experiments and assignments into the classrooms. A significant amount of professional development is provided to teachers participating in this program, including a week of “camp” during the summer and a series of day-long workshops during the school year. These give instruction on a number of topics and potential laboratory experiments. Materials science is then taught without much of the higher-level math. The goal is instead to engage the students by showing them science concepts and making them aware of some of the complexities of everyday objects. The results of this program have been very positive from the perspective of both the students and the teachers. Embracing the MSP teaching practices has also changed the way teachers teach. Teachers are now acting as classroom coaches instead of lecturers and worksheet dispensers. A framework for a stand-alone materials science high school course is also being developed in collaboration with Columbus Public Schools. As the program grows, more seasoned high school teachers are leading the camps for incoming teachers, showing the potential for tremendous growth and dispersal of the philosophy and techniques of the MSP program.

Polasik, A. K., & Daehn, G. S., & McCombs, M. R. (2016, June), Implementation of Materials Science in the High School Classroom Paper presented at 2016 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, New Orleans, Louisiana. 10.18260/p.25585

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