Some good discussion in this thread. I like to focus on showing students the breadth of work which can be done in Materials Science, and allowing them to see if any of those areas sounds interesting. 15% of the time, students decide they
don't want to be in Materials Science (Chemistry comment in another thread), and this is also fine - better to learn this now than after three years of college. Here are a few examples:
1) Teaching students how much properties can be improved by making a few changes, such as the strength of low carbon steel vs ultra-high strength steel (how many students can we suspend from a 3mm wire of one vs. the other? Pass around a 3mm wire and let them imagine all of those students holding on to one wire...), and then explain why both are needed (car bumper vs. paperclip vs. aerospace part), and they will begin to get an idea of how amazing materials are.
2) Heat treating (same material - just change temperature; medium carbon steel: three rods, Quench two and anneal one, then temper one of the quenched rods - quenched snaps like a pencil, annealed bends like a paper clip, Q&T won't budge!)
3) Composites (two useless materials added together makes amazing properties)
4) Failure analysis (which, of the 394,518 ways in which this part could fail, was the actual cause of failure? How can we use that knowledge to make other products safe?)
5) But wait! There's More!!! Electronics, ceramics, the cost-drivers which force us to maximize cost/benefit ratios, etc... Gosh I love Materials Science!
I also think this is a great opportunity to blend in other High-school level classes. The connections to Chemistry, Physics, Mathematics, Business, (cost/benefit analysis, which alloy to add), Biology (copper/silver bioactivity, biomaterials) and even English (No - really! Failure analysis is basically a 75-page word problem where you are trying to isolate what paragraph out of 12 journal articles actually relates to what killed your part...) might be a good opportunity for students to see how interconnected each of the science fields are. Did I mention that I love Materials Science??? Fun fact - I'm wearing my ASM "I love heat treating" shirt and drinking from my ASM Dome Coffee Mug as I type this...
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Zachary Birky
Intellectual Property Transaction Manager
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Original Message:
Sent: 07-10-2020 21:00
From: Martin Reeves
Subject: Making material science appealing to students
How well do you think that materials science is portrayed to school kids, especially those headed for college and what would you propose to improve the number taking the materials science route.
What could people in the industry be doing better to help get kids involved?
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Martin Reeves
Owner
fontec-global LLC
Holland MI
(616) 635-4283
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