TY - JOUR
T1 - Using hands-on laboratory experiences to underscore concepts and to create excitement about materials
AU - Stair, Kathleen
AU - Crist, Buckley
PY - 2006/1/1
Y1 - 2006/1/1
N2 - It is universally acknowledged that laboratories and demonstrations add information and interest to science and engineering courses. Constraints are time, space and cost. We have developed a series of hands-on laboratories coordinated with our "Introduction to Principles and Properties of Materials" course, taken as a Basic Engineering elective by most of the engineering majors in the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science at Northwestern. These activities are conducted in 50-minute weekly sessions with approximately 40 students in each section. Our objective is for students to handle materials and to make qualitative observations and quantitative measurements. The experiments described herein are easily and inexpensively duplicated, allowing individuals or small groups to work independently. We describe the following representative activities in detail: the observation of work hardening and recrystallization in copper tubing; measurement of temperature-dependent resistivities of metals and semiconductors; exploration of the glass transition in inorganic and organic materials; measurement of LED I-V curves with a simple circuit; and quantitative determination of the effect of surface flaws on the strength of glass.
AB - It is universally acknowledged that laboratories and demonstrations add information and interest to science and engineering courses. Constraints are time, space and cost. We have developed a series of hands-on laboratories coordinated with our "Introduction to Principles and Properties of Materials" course, taken as a Basic Engineering elective by most of the engineering majors in the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science at Northwestern. These activities are conducted in 50-minute weekly sessions with approximately 40 students in each section. Our objective is for students to handle materials and to make qualitative observations and quantitative measurements. The experiments described herein are easily and inexpensively duplicated, allowing individuals or small groups to work independently. We describe the following representative activities in detail: the observation of work hardening and recrystallization in copper tubing; measurement of temperature-dependent resistivities of metals and semiconductors; exploration of the glass transition in inorganic and organic materials; measurement of LED I-V curves with a simple circuit; and quantitative determination of the effect of surface flaws on the strength of glass.
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M3 - Conference article
AN - SCOPUS:85029115345
JO - ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition, Conference Proceedings
JF - ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition, Conference Proceedings
SN - 2153-5965
T2 - 113th Annual ASEE Conference and Exposition, 2006
Y2 - 18 June 2006 through 21 June 2006
ER -