MatEdU Materials Science Educational Handbook 2021 Published

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As part of the new NSF ATE funded MatEdU Online Instructional Resource for Material Science Technology Education project, one of the exciting and key deliverables is the publication of a Materials Science Educational Handbook 2021. We are pleased to announce this new handbook is now live on the site.

Materials Science Educational Handbook Editor, Thomas G. Stoebe, Professor Emeritus of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Washington, Seattle, WA, and Co-Principal Investigator of the former National Resource Center for Materials Technology Education (MatEdU) spent months with a team of subject matter experts to develop this new peer reviewed resource. It is packed with materials science educational modules for secondary and post-secondary instructors and students, with lesson plans, course objectives, and hands-on activities and labs in materials science topics, from beginner to advanced levels (full chapter listing and links below).

The handbook contains the various modules and course standards that you will need to develop and teach a wide range of materials science lessons.

In the Handbook, there is an Introduction and How to Use section that lays out exactly what you will find with instructions on navigating each unit of peer-reviewed, hands-on educational activities, called “Modules.” Each chapter is listed separately in the MatEdU Instructional Resources section as a downloadable PDF (see screenshot below). The entire document is internally cross-indexed with hyperlinks to allow quick and easy access to all sections of the handbook.

Materials Science Educational Handbook Table of Contents

Properties of Rubber Bands (and Heat)

For example, in Chapter 1 Intro Materials, if you want to know more about “The Odd Behavior of Rubber Bands,” or some understanding of how those properties respond to heat, you can jump directly to that handbook section and peruse a simple lesson plan with student learning objectives as well as equipment and supplies needed for the lesson. There are also extensive instructor notes to help with actual classroom content and discussion points that get quite specific, as in the section on Heating a Rubber Band and what happens when you do so. 

From Chapter One: “The Handbook provides proven instructional materials for instructors to utilize in a variety of settings. For K-12 classes, connections to the Next Generation Science Standards are provided along with applicable connections to Science and Engineering Practice, Disciplinary Core Ideas and Crosscutting Concepts from A Framework for K12 Science Education.”

The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), according to the NGSS website, “are K–12 science content standards. Standards set the expectations for what students should know and be able to do. The NGSS were developed by states to improve science education for all students.” The Materials Science Educational Handbook follows and offers input on using these standards. 

Instructors and students can also access each chapter PDF with the following links:

Some of these modules already exist within the MatEdU Module area (dozens of modules/lesson plans are available) and can be searched for if you need only one particular topic area, such as Rubber Bands and Heat, (where you can compare properties and applications of thermoset plastics) but the most updated version is in the Handbook.

For those curious about the many materials education resources available through the Online Instructional Resources for Material Science Technology Education, we wrote about the new grant here: Materials Education (MatEdU) Improves And Expands As Online Resource Center.