Materials Science Course For Nonmajors: An Exercise In Experiential Learning

Teaching Materials Science courses can be difficult. Teaching Materials Science courses to non-majors can be even more difficult, but teaching Materials Science courses to freshmen non-majors who have no chemistry or engineering background can be extremely challenging. The students in the Mechanical Engineering Technology (MET) program in the Purdue School of Engineering and Technology at IUPUI are required to take an introductory Materials Science course their very first semester. Lacking the basic chemistry and engineering mechanics fundamentals, most of the concepts presented in this course are completely foreign to the students. The absence of the fundamentals coupled with the students’ naiveté about materials, products, and processes requires a slightly different approach in the classroom.