UK Centre for Materials Education
Working with you to enhance the student experience
Working with you to enhance the student experience
Awarded to: A P Bromley
Institution: University of Leeds
Funded in: 2001
Project description: This project aims to address the key issue of recruitment to materials programmes by focussing on the awareness of materials by students.
Background: A key issue in recruitment of undergraduates to Materials programmes is perceived to be the poor level of awareness in the wider community of Materials Science, something which is not apparent in other areas of engineering such as Mechanical or Chemical Engineering. Awareness is to be investigated in two ways.
Objectives: Evidence about Materials awareness is somewhat anecdotal. Therefore, one part of this project considers obtaining an accurate, realistic view of the actual current level of awareness of Materials Degree programmes in lower sixth form and year 10 students. This will be done through a survey of 150 high schools (~10%), which will provide a base level for awareness of the Materials subject. Hopefully, this will be followed up in future years by subsequent surveys to give an indication of any improvement in awareness.
A second issue is to consider the most effective means of improving student awareness. This is a big issue that could cover many areas. However, it is common for Materials Departments and the Institute to use presentations to school students as a vehicle to put across the subject. This can include visits to Schools, Departmental Open Days, workshops etc. It is the presentation that will be considered in this project. Based upon pedagogical theory presentation and demonstration resources will be developed into a road-show. Through detailed feedback analysis information will be gained on the most effective forms of resources and presentation of them.
Survey: Survey forms will be developed by circulation around the Materials community. Schools will then be contacted by telephone and survey forms sent to those willing to take part in the survey. Two groups will be targeted, lower sixth (17 year olds) and year 11 (16 year olds). Results will be collated and a report produced which will be made available to all Materials departments. Half the survey will consist of schools in the schools affiliate scheme, in collaboration with Ruth Withey, the other half will not be members. This will also give some indication of how well teacher members of the School's Affiliate Scheme are getting the subject of Materials Science across to their students.
Road-show: The project will develop presentation and demonstration resources which illustrate how Materials impact in five different subject areas. Once developed the road-show will be taken to at least 10 schools, at sixth form level, as part of the project. A further aim of the road-show will be to begin to form relationships between students and schools and University Materials Departments. It is not the intention to bring the road-show to a school, do the event and stop there. The process must be on-going. Therefore, travel bursaries will be made available to school students interested in investigating the materials subject further, to allow them to visit any University Materials Department Open Day or similar type of event. Those receiving bursaries will be expected to fill in a feedback questionnaire about their visit.
