2022 Talks
2nd Online Materials Education Symposium

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OMES 2022, Program Details

poster number	Speaker	Affiliation	Topic
1	Mark Miodownik	University College London, UK	The Pitfalls and Triumphs of Holding Practical Workshops Online
2	John A. Nychka	University of Alberta, Canada	A Case for Case Studies: Using Open-Ended and Unfolding Case Studies in Materials Education

Talk Abstracts

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The Pitfalls and Triumphs of Holding Practical Workshops Online

Mark Miodownik, University College London, UK

For over a decade the UCL Institute of Making has specialised in a hands-on approach to the topic of materials and making. In early 2020 we joined a project called Making Spaces which aims explore how makerspaces can support equitable STEM engagement among young people from minoritised and under-resourced communities. When the pandemic forced the temporary closure of our workshops and materials library we pivoted to offer workshops online instead. The workshop topics included making face masks, sustainable fashion, printing with sugar, and DIY biomaterials amongst other topics. In this talk I will discuss the reflections of our team of providing these online workshops, along with wider insights from the Making Spaces team.

Biography Mark Miodownik is the UCL Professor of Materials & Society. He received his Ph.D in turbine jet engine alloys from Oxford University, and has worked as a materials engineer in the USA, Ireland and the UK. For more than twenty years he has championed materials science research that links to the arts and humanities, medicine, and society. This culminated in the establishment of the UCL Institute of Making, where he is a director and runs the research programme. Mark also recently set up the Plastic Waste Innovation Hub to carry our research into solving the environmental catastrophe of plastic waste. Mark is the multi-award winning author of New York Times bestselling book Stuff Matters. He regularly presents BBC TV and radio programmes on materials science and engineering. In 2014 he was elected a fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering. In 2018 he was awarded an MBE for services to materials science, engineering and broadcasting.

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A Case for Case Studies: Using Open-Ended and Unfolding Case Studies in Materials Education

John A. Nychka, Chemical and Materials Engineering Department, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada

Whilst examples demonstrate how to solve problems they are poor learning objects for higher order thinking skills development (synthesis, integration, and creation); case studies are superior. Perhaps the most critical difference between examples and case studies is the role assumed by the student: in examples, learners are followers of thought and their role switches to leaders of thought in case studies. Thus, learners must access and operate at higher levels/orders of thinking during case studies, and in so doing can achieve deeper knowledge acquisition and development along with improved reasoning skills and engineering judgement. This presentation will shed light on the different types of case studies, cases with common everyday objects, open-ended and unfolding case pedagogies, facilitation practices, and discuss innovations in case delivery in the online environment prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic—some of which are here to stay.

Biography John Nychka is a Professor in the Chemical and Materials Engineering Department at the University of Alberta. His main teaching interests are introductory materials engineering, capstone design, performance of materials, failure analysis, and materials characterization.His teaching style is heavily reliant upon garnering student engagement and reflection through reinforcing concepts embedded in accessible “real world” cases and examples. Designing student contributions, feedback, and interaction are central in his approach. He is a self-proclaimed junk collector because he believes that having more “junk” in his office allows him to help students form better, and longer lasting, connections between real materials concepts and our world.

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